Life is Good When You're Growing Up
by Alexander-Crossover
Summary: Snowy Heart Fox is about to join the Care Bear Family, but these aren't the Care Bears your used to. Enter a Kingdom of Caring populated by Teenage Care Bears and Cousins who act just like normal teenagers, with a few twists. c1 edited
1. Visions and Meetings

**Life is Good When You're Growing up **

(A collaboration between Wilson Kieran Kitsune and Fauna Greywolf)

Visions and Meetings

Visions, they always came during his meditation and vision quests, but then again, that was the point. Kona sat in his bedroom with the incense wafting around him. He breathed deep and let his eyes mist over letting the visions come, recalling his shaman training and experience as he did.

In front of his eyes he saw clouds, but not the purple clouds of his incense, they were white clouds, the same kind of clouds in the sky, but they looked, solid somehow. Around him he began to see strange trees, and forms, much like him, wandering around like they were normal people. The intensity was so great and then.

His alarm clock sounding broke him out of his stupor. He had forgotten to shut off the alarm that got him up for school in the afternoon and he didn't feel particularly like getting back into the trance now. Sighing he changed out of the earth tone shaman robes and into a more casual t-shirt and shorts, making sure his tail fit through the hole in the back put there just for that reason. He went outside and looked around, feeling sad as there wasn't much he could do today, no one he could really hang out with, as people were often shocked by his appearance.

Kona wasn't human, the 14 year old was a humanoid arctic fox, white in color and with a heart shaped nose tip and, under his clothes, a red heart shape on his rear. When he was an infant he'd been found lying in the snow after his parents had died and he was subsequently been adopted by this small Native American tribe. He was a bit shorter than the rest of the people in his home, about four feet and 10 inches tall, which felt about normal for him. At a young age he'd discovered a talent for shamanism and which was how he had gone into the trance earlier, and to pass the time he spent mostly alone, he had developed skill in archery, which he had honed to a superlative level, able to hit far away targets in rapid succession. But even so, he was alone, because even if he was accepted people were still off-put by him being a fox.

The vision he'd had seemed to confirm that there was a place for him, somewhere else, but he never knew when he would find it. Maybe the solution would just come to him.

***

The place Kona was seeking was actually directly above him, and he didn't know it, but his feelings of loneliness were about to draw that place to him. The Kingdom of Caring, the home of the Care Bear Family, those who helped people to share their feelings and become more caring as well as combat the forces that attempted to darken the hearts of people. But the Care Bears and Care Bear cousins were not as uniform as people expect, in fact they were all quite different. Other than the founders, True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse, and Grams Bear, who was the eldest of them, the Care Bears and cousins were all around the ages of 13 to 16, and like human teenagers, each of them was doing their own thing to show individuality, from minor to extreme display.

The Caring Meter's alarm sounded and the two closest Care Bears were Harmony Bear and Share Bear and both, having a sense of responsibility for these missions, headed to the meter to check the location that had triggered the alarm. Harmony adjusted her small sunglasses and looked at where it was indicating.

"Looks like someone in Canada needs our help, girl," she said, crossing her arms.

"Canada," share put her hands together, "I hear it's so beautiful this time of year," the purple bear adjusted her sky blue poodle skirt and blouse, "Shall we go?"

"Yes, let's," Harmony pushed her dark purple beret forwards and then used her symbol, as it shone through her dark purple sweater, and created a cloud car. Harmony got into the driver's sear and Share into the front passenger's seat. Harmony checked the mirrors before driving off and heading down to earth.

***

Kona was sitting on a playground bench, having walked that far since he left his house earlier and was staring at some kids playing when he heard the strange engine noise from above. He looked up, and then rubbed his eyes, thinking it might have been a residual effect from the incense, but no, it was real. The cloud landed nearby and it turned out to be a flying car made of clouds. And the drive and passenger were two bears, both female, purple, one a darker shade than the other. The lighter shaded one was wearing a sky blue blouse and poodle skirt and was smiling rather brightly and the one who was a darker shade of purple was wearing a dark purple beret, sweater and sweat pants, along with small dark purple sunglasses; she seemed to project a sort of heaviness, but not sadness.

Kona stood up and, in the silence caused by their arrival, he said, "You, you're just like me!"

The lack of noise meant that Share and Harmony heard him easily, and Share, always eager, was the first one to reach him, she took his hand and shook it enthusiastically.

"Hi!" she said, excitedly, "My name is Share Bear, you must be the reason we came down here, the lonely boy who was looking for a place to belong."

"It doesn't take a genius," the other ear said, approaching more slowly, "I'm Harmony Bear, and you are?"

"Oh, umm my name is Kona, it's means snow in the language of my people. What are you two? And I guess what am I?" the arctic fox asked.

"We're Care Bears, and you're a Care Bear cousin," Share explained.

"Were part of the Care Bear family," Harmony continued, "We're a group of animals similar in form to this who help people share their feelings and be more caring."

"So that's what my vision meant," Kona said, more to himself than the two bears, "So this must be where I belong," he looked up at them, this time speaking to them, "May I come to live with you, I don't have much so I could go and pack easily, and tell my people where I'm going. I won't belong, can you wait?"

"Of course, but-" Harmony was cut off as Snowy dashed of to do just as he had said.

"Well, he's certainly enthusiastic," Harmony said.

"He's so energetic!" Share said, "I can't wait for him to come up and live with us."

A couple hours later, Kona had finished packing and saying goodbye to the people of his tribe. There were a few tears and some well wishing but generally, the consensus was that they thought that he should go where he would be happy and among his own kind.

As the fox was just closing the suitcases he needed to pack for moving, he heard a knock at the door to his house. He answered and was surprised by who he saw.

"Elder, why are you here, I thought you were bedridden," Kona said.

"I was, but I foresaw these events and I knew you would be leaving today," the man said, in a voice that showed his age. The man was indeed ancient and was certainly everything that one would expect the elder medicine man of a Native American plains tribe to look like. The man was also the man who had taught Kona archery and the ways of shamanism and as such was the closest thing that Kona had to a father.

The old man reached up and undid an amulet from around his neck, lifting the part hidden buy his shirt to reveal that it was an odd shaped silver colored pentacle, rather than being a standard pentagram it looked more like a five armed asterisk with a small ring attached to the back about midway between the tips of the arms and where they intersected. The old man handed it to Kona who took it carefully.

"What is this?" the fox asked.

"It is a relic of sorts, my family has had it for several generations and I am passing it onto you, as you are the one I feel will find the best use for it."

"But how will I use it and when?" Kona's curiosity was aroused.

The old man placed his wrinkled hand on Kona's shoulder and said simply, "You will know, when the time comes, now go before your new family gets tired of waiting for you."

Before the Elder left, Kona gave him a careful hug, not wanting to hurt him, "Thank you," he said, "for letting me stay with while I grew up." The odl man merely smiled and hugged him back

Once the elder had left, Kona put the pentacle around his neck and put the pendant end into his shirt, hiding the object completely. He would keep it out of site until he felt he needed to use it. He then grabbed his suitcases and carried them out to the Cloud Car where Share and Harmony had amused themselves while he was busy.

"This is all I own, should I just put it into the trunk?" Kona asked.

"Sure, just pop it right in," Harmony popped the trunk to the cloud car and Kona carefully loaded his suitcases into the vehicle before getting in the passenger seat. Harmony once again took the wheel and Share got in beside Kona, wanting to seat next to him in the back seat.

"You're going to just love living in the Kingdom of Caring," she said, "I can't wait for everyone to meet you!"

Harmony started the engine and drove up back to their home.

***

True Heart and Noble Heart paused outside the doors of the Hall of Hearts. They were the last to arrive and the noises from inside led them to believe chaos had once more ensued with their adolescent charges.

"Deep breath Noble before we enter hormone central." He made a tee-pee with his hands inhaling deep as True Heart spoke before replying, "Lets stretch in order to dodge the spitballs that will be flying."

She nodded and bent to touch her toes as Noble Heart pulled a leg up behind his back towards his head.

Kona regarded the two with a quizzical look, "Should I be concerned for my safety?"

Noble Heart shook his head, "No no no. You should be fine, just keep your head down and follow us to the dais."

"I have a better idea, let us go in and introduce you first, and then you can enter to meet the others." Kona nodded to True Heart in understanding.

Taking a final deep breath they slipped into the Hall of Hearts, leaving Kona momentarily alone.

As they expected, the interior of their meeting place was in utter chaos. Playful Heart hung from the chandelier by his tail, firing spitballs in a multitude of directions, not caring who he hit. Brave Heart and Champ were arm wrestling with Cheer and Cozy Heart rooting them on. Lotsa Heart was trying to get his bag of chips back from Proud Heart, who had taken them away insisting he find a healthier snack item. Loyal Heart was close by, making sure things between the two stayed civil.

On the other side of the room, Swift Heart sat with her feet on the table, popping her gum and filing her nails, not paying attention to her fellows. Near her Love-a-Lot was trying fighting over a bottle of nail polish with Wish Bear and both were being berated by Bright Heart, saying they were making him mess up his blue prints. Tender Heart stood at the front of the room trying to calm everyone down, saying they would be in trouble for behaving so abominably. This only caused Funshine and Birthday to lob paper balls at him. Grumpy was plugging his ears as Good Luck rambled on and on about something. Valiant Heart Wolverine was listening to some music, with an earphone in one ear, and waiting for a chance to take part in the arm wrestling, as he had called dibs on the winner.

Making it to the front of the room, with minimal injuries, Noble Heart smacked the gavel on the stand, "Settle down everyone!" They ignored him so he pulled a mega phone out from under the top, "I SAID QUIET!"

All eyes focused on the purple horse at the podium, "Thank you. Now please, sit!"

True Heart did a head count as they all took their seats, with further prompting from Noble Heart. "Hold on a second, where's Fauna?"

Tender Heart pointed accusingly, "Ask her. They were together this morning."

True Heart looked down the room to Swift Heart, who was continuing to file her nails, but a little more intensely then a moment ago. Her eyes flicked up to meet True Hearts and she asked innocently, "What?"

"Do you know where Fauna is?" True Heart repeated, guessing what the answer would be.

Swift Heart nodded, eyes wandering to look away, "Yes…" She gripped her nail file and pointed it at True Heart, "Not here."

Those around her giggled, allowing her familiar cocky smirk to appear.

"Can you be more specific?" True Heart prompted.

Swift Heart shook her head, "Sorry Truey, she blew out of here a couple hours ago and didn't say where she was heading. I'm sure she will be back by night fall." She blew a huge bubble with her gum.

It wasn't all that surprising, Fauna often disappeared without saying where she was going. While she appreciated Noble Heart and True Heart taking her in, she often felt like she didn't belong.

"Anyways, we called you all here to introduce you to a new member of the family. Share and Harmony discovered him while down on earth and invited him back. So please give a warm welcome to Kona."

All eyes turned to the door as Kona came in.

Kona had peeked in and gulped before he was announced but he stepped in anyway. He raised his right hand and said, "Hi, my name is Kona," he said. True Heart beaconed at the front to him.

"Don't be shy, come up here where we can all see you easily," the female founder said. Kona nodded and walked up to take a place between the two founders before speaking up again.

"My name, is Kona, it means snow in the language of my people. I was found in Canada and until today, I thought I was the only one of my kind."

"Hey, we're like cousins or something," Valiant Heart, the dark grey wolverine with a tuft of dyed green hair spoke up, "Noble Heart said he found me north Canada."

"Thank you, Valiant, now please, our new friend is trying to speak," Noble Heart said, before nodding to Kona to continue.

"Well, actually, there's not much else. I'm a bit of a shaman and an archer, and I've never had any real friend up until now. I hope I can join you here in the Care Bear Family."

"Well I certainly know you can," Noble Heart clapped him heartily on the back, "Now we need to think of a name for you, you can use your own name but we all take on another name when you join up, any suggestions." Noble Heart regretted it almost as soon as the words left his mouth.

Playful Heart spoke up first, "Fantastical Foxy Heart sounds good to me!" He monkey laughed afterwards before doing a hand stand on the table.

"Don't make jokes about this Playful!" Loyal Heart said.

"He should have a more sensible name that shows his skills, like Shaman Heart," Bright Heart suggested.

Swift Heart scoffed, "Why should Kona get special treatment. Playful jokes about everything, loosen up. Or would you prefer something along the lines of O CANADAAAAAAA Heart."

"Hey now, it's not special treatment," Valiant spoke up, "I'm not name maple leaf heart or something."

"That's because you don't have any maple leaf stamps on your body!" Funshine shouted across the table, "He should have a fun name since he doesn't have to let just Noble and True decide it for him."

"Why don't we ask him what he wants to be called? He is standing in the room you know." Grumpy grumbled crossing his arms. However none of the others seemed to hear. Brave Heart jumped to his feet "How about Courageous Heart Fox! Sidekick to Brave Heart the Magnificent." The cousins groaned, Brave Heart had had this alter ego complex for years.

"Oh yeah right, like he'd want to be your sidekick," Harmony said, rolling her eyes.

The argument continued to go back and forth for several minutes and Kona just stood there, embarrassed that such a large fight was being fought over him. Tenderheart tried to get the rest of the room to order with no success as usual. True Heart noticing how embarrassed the fox was gave a look to Noble Heart who nodded. The two founders stood up and their tummy symbols began to glow and they fired a combined stare at the ceiling, creating a loud and bright *BANG* when the joined together. The room fell silent, the founders only did that in extreme emergencies, or when things were just getting too out of hand.

"Thank you, now unless there are any other suggestions, Kona, perhaps you have an for a name." True Heart said.

"Well," the fox thought for a moment before saying, "Kona means snow, so perhaps, Snowy Heart would be a good name," he said.

"All right, anyone else have any better suggestions?" Noble Heart asked.

Those who had regained their hearing and vision shook their heads. Most were rubbing their eyes or wiggling fingers in their ears dramatically as if the blast of light and sound had permanently damaged them.

"Very well, your name is now Snowy Heart Fox, welcome to the family, now you need a tummy symbol," True Heat said.

"He's a cousin, so I'll do the honors," Noble Heart said, his symbol glowing before firing an imprint onto the newly named Snowy Heart's tummy. The symbol it left was of a blocky white snowy cloud with a small pyramid of hearts falling form it, Kona later explained they were the written language of his people for a snow cloud and snow falling, albeit with hearts instead of dots.

"Welcome to the family Snowy Heart. Can we go now?" Grumpy queried. True Heart blushed in embarrassment, "Does anyone in this family possess manners?" Funshine smiled innocently, propping her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands,

"Only the boring ones. And I bet Snowy can already tell who they are." She motioned with her eyes to the stiff straight Tender Heart watching True Heart and Noble Heart attentively.

"Umm," Snowy Heart spoke up, "if it's all the same, I'd like to get my possessions and take them to where I will be living, which will be where exactly?" he asked, Noble Heart.

"Well, we don't have a house set up right now, we can have one made soon I hope, we just need some time to prepare an area. You can stay with us, unless you have somewhere else you would like to stay."

"He can stay with me!" Share said, standing up and waving her hand, "I'm happy to share my house with you."

"Is that all right with you Snowy Heart?" True Heart asked.

"It's fine," Snowy said, "I guess you can show me to your house then, Share," Snowy left the head of the table and went over to Share, who took his hand and led him outside, stopping long enough for them to grab his bags.

The others had started to leave as well, not even waiting for Noble Heart to dismiss the meeting. Leaning on the podium he gazed down at True Heart, "Sometimes I wonder why we bother." She grinned back at him, "So we can have lots of stories to embarrass them with when they're older." Outside Swift Heart strode past Snowy and Share "Hope you two have fun. Share Bear loves 'sharing.'" whispered with a giggle, pulling her sunglasses down over her eyes.

_'What was that supposed to mean?'_ Snowy thought to himself before he headed off to Share's house with his stuff.


	2. Welcome to Your new Family

A/N: for those who might not have noticed, in this story and any sequels thereafter, the members of the Care Bear Family are all taller than normal, around 3 feet 6 inches to 5 feet tall, anatomically correct, and usually wear clothing, but do not need to most just prefer to do so, showing off their various styles.

Welcome to your new family

After arriving at Share's house, Snowy set his suitcases down and let share excuse herself to "freshen up" whatever that meant. He sat down on the couch and looked around at the décor, it reminded him of things he'd read about being the general style of the 1950s. Granted the way that Share was dressed with a poodle skirt and blouse, she seemed to enjoy the style of that time. He looked down at his tummy, even lifting his shirt up so he could see the symbol underneath it. It signified that he was no longer alone in the world, he had a place he belonged. It would take him time to adjust but I the end it would be for the best.

At that moment, Share emerged, looking no different, as far as Snowy could see, and she grabbed his hand.

"Let's go Snowy dear," she said, smiling and sweetly, "you should see what we do outside of meetings, it's much more fun than that."

"I should hope so," Snowy said, as he was pulled to his feet and dragged out the door, "So anything I should be aware of?"

"Just watch out for Playful Heart, he tends to pull pranks and anything that moves," Share rolled her eyes, "but he's all right when you get used to him," she giggled before pulling him along to the Forest of Feelings.

***

In the Forest of Feelings, the cousins were setting up to have a game of touch football. Well except for Proud Heart who was worried about getting her clothes dirty and Gentle Heart who didn't approve of violent sports. Treat Heart too was choosing to sit out and just watch. Swift Heart was one captain and Loyal Heart the other. Both were trying not to laugh at Brave Heart pumping up his "muscles" so he would be chosen first.

"Your go Loyal. Why don't you take Shwartzelion." He nodded to Swift Heart, still laughing.

"I'll take Brave Heart." Whooping the lion went to Loyal Heart, high fiveing him.

"I'll take Playful Heart." The monkey went to join Swift Heart. Proud Heart rolled her eyes, "This is going to end badly Loyal." Swift Heart shrugged over to her, "Sorry Proud Heart but our receptionist is out at the moment, please leave your complaint at the tone."

Loyal Heart ended up choosing Lotsa Heart and Bright Heart along with Brave Heart. Swift Hearts team consisted of Cozy Heart and Playful Heart.

"You're one player down Swifty. That doesn't seem fair." Loyal Heart told her looking her team over.

"No worries Loyal Heart, I have one more player on the way." Looking at her watch she counted backwards from 5. On 1, Fauna cantered up to the group.

"Hey sorry I'm late. Ready to play?" Swift Hearts team smirked evilly at their opposition.

Loyal Hearts team exchanged a look before saying in perfect unison, "NO SHIFTING!"

"Aww you guys take all the fun out of it." The appaloosa Pegasus changed to become a dark brown haired 13 year old with tan skin and wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "Better?"

"Yes." Brave Heart told her before the teams split to begin play.

As the game began, Share and Snowy Heart arrived, with Snowy not walking beside her, but still holding her hand. Noticing what's going on snowy asked.

"What's this, a football game?"

"Looks like, let's go and see!" Share sped up, forcing Snowy to match her pace as they made it to the benches on the sidelines.

Swift Heart was about to throw the ball when she saw the two approaching out of the corner of her eye. Turning she left Brave Heart the perfect opportunity.

"Charge!" He grasped Swift Heart around the middle, tackling her to the ground on her back.

"Oww! It's TOUCH football Brave Heart!" Pulling her legs up she kicked him in the gut sending him flying backwards. Flipping to her feet she sent the ball sailing towards Playful Heart.

Snowy watched the game going on and asked, "Who's the human girl?"

"That is Fauna Greywolf," Proud Heart said, "She was adopted into our family by Noble Heart and True Heart and she is a shapeshifting pegasus."

"A what?" Snowy was confused.

Bright Heart was standing near them and over heard, "A member of family Equidae who have mutated a set of wings that grow from their scapula and allow them to sustain flight."

"Umm ok," Snowy sat down, "That's not what I meant, but ok then." He watched as Playful caught the ball, and took off with Loyal Heart chasing to intercept him to keep him from reaching the goal zone.

Fauna went after Loyal Heart reaching for him. Treat Heart sat on Snowy's free side, "You'll have to excuse Bright Heart, he forgets not all of us have read encyclopedia Britannica. She is a Pegasus but has a special ability that allows her to take on the shape of any animal she pleases. Cupcake?" She offered him a container of brightly colored cupcakes. Fauna meanwhile had tagged Loyal Heart giving her team possession of the ball once more. As they lined up she glanced to the side lines and saw an Arctic fox taking cupcakes from Treat Heart.

She leaned down to Cozy Heart, "So what exactly did I miss last night." The penguin cousin laughed, "One heck of a meeting. That's Snowy Heart, our new addition."

Snowy accepted a cupcake and took a bite. After swallowing it he said, "Thanks, they're good," before turning to watch the game again.

"I don't see how they can play games like this," Proud Heart said, rolling her eyes, "even so, I'm cheering for Loyal Heart's team."

"Of course you are." Gentle Heart bleated. All the cousins knew the two of them had a thing going.

Treat Heart called out to the field, "Hey Playful Heart... Proud Heart says she's not rooting for you guys."

The monkey cousin froze up and grabbed his heart before falling to the ground, "No! How can I go on?"

Proud Heart rolled her eyes, "You guys are so immature sometimes."

The monkey shot back to life, "I resent that! I am immature all the time thank you."

"Are things always like this?" Snowy Heart asked.

"Some times they are crazier," Share said, "but you get used to it after a while."

"Oww!" Brave Heart had tossed the ball a little too hard at Lotsa Heart, and he had missed causing it to hit him between the eyes.

"Take it easy Brave Heart," he rubbed the spot.

"It's not my fault you can't catch."

Fauna made a t-shape with her hands, "Okay, I'm evoking a time out because I really want one of Treat Hearts cup cakes."

"I second that!" Swift Heart replied.

Cozy and Playful both raised their hands, "We third it." As a team the walked over to the spectators. Snowy stood up and moved aside so they could easily get access to Treat Heart's cupcakes. Once she got one, Snowy found himself face to face with Fauna.

"Hi," he said, "I'm Snowy Heart, or Kona was the name I used on Earth."

She took a quick lick of the frosting before extending her hand, "I'm Fauna. Here and on Earth." Her eyes widened momentarily, "Not that I go to Earth all that often."

Snowy took her hand and shook it carefully, "Nice to meet you," he said, not sure what else to say.

"He's a bit shy," Share said, "the meeting last night probably didn't help his nerves at all."

Fauna laughed, "Ah the meetings. Or as we call them target practice for Playful Heart." Looking at her cupcake, she tossed it at Proud Heart, the blue icing sticking into her fur. She shrieked and began to wipe it off.

"How dare you!" Proud Heart said, clearly angry, "I've had enough of this, I'm going home to fix this."

"Why not just lick it off, that's how you clean yourself isn't it?" Playful called after she left, Proud Heart chose not to dignify that with a reply. Loyal Heart decided to slip away without causing a stir, it wasn't in his nature to create a ruckus at Playful's pranks, it would just lead to problems, and there was a new member there who probably shouldn't get caught up in this.

"Well looks like the end of our game." Swift Heart commented. "What are we going to do now?"

"Wait, where's Valiant Heart? I know he always like to play these games with you?" Share asked, surprised not to see the wolverine there.

"Oh, he was here, but he was complaining about some sort of spasm and left to go see Take Care," Bright Heart said.

Fauna twirled her finger by her temple, "Yeah spasm of his brain."

"Do you just need a tenth player?" Snowy asked, "Or would you rather do something else?"

"If you want to join come on! You'll be on my team!" Brave Heart grabbed Snowy pulling him to the field.

Snowy was taken by surprise as he was pulled to the field, he turned to Bright Heart and asked, "So is this like the football you see on TV or is it different?"

"It's the same, just instead of tackling someone all you have to do is tag them." Bright Heart responded. Swift Heart tossed the ball up and down, "Okay teams, line-em up."

Snowy got into the position that Loyal Heart had formerly occupied and got as ready as he could, waiting for the game to continue.

"Hike!" Swift Heart waited to toss the ball as Playful Heart bounded up the field. Lotsa Heart was guarding her, waiting for 10 seconds to elapse so he could tag her. "Hey Lotsa, your shoes are untied." "They are?" he looked down at his feet and the ball sailed over his head towards Playful Heart, "Wait! I'm not wearing shoes."

Brave Heart immediately went after Playful Heart, who had caught the ball, reaching out to try and stop him. He took the ball in his tail and held it out for Cozy Heart to grab. The penguin cousin did so, before waddling away as fast as she could.

Bright Heart got in front go Cozy Heart, blocking her path, "Go for it, Snowy!" he called. Snowy wasn't sure what to do, so he just ran at Cozy Heart and reached out a hand to tag her out.

She giggled, "You got me. Your ball." She handed him the football.

Snowy took the football and blinked, "Umm, what do I do now?" he asked.

Fauna pushed him from behind to the center of the field, "You stand here. Since you recovered the ball it's your teams turn to run it." She stood across from him, "That is if you can get it past us." She crouched, ready for his move.

Snowy stood and lifted the ball, looking to Brave Heart, whom he hoped to throw the ball to, "Umm hike?" he said, hoping that was the right thing to say.

Although he tried his best, Snowy's team ended up loosing by 14 points. All the competitors except Swift Heart collapsed on the grass exhausted from the running. Cozy Heart looked up at the sun, "Looks like it's almost lunch time. Should we head back to Care-a-Lot?"

"That...sounds...Good," snowy said, panting between each word. He was by no means unfit, but he wasn't used to this level of physical activity all at once.

"That sounds good," Share stood up and walked over to the fox, helping him up, "Good effort out there."

"Err, thanks," Snowy said, a bit embarrassed.

Cloud mobiles were conjured and the cousins present climbed aboard. Fauna remained where she was, "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna tell madame dramatic and sir chivalry that it's lunch time."

Snowy blinked in surprise at the cars coming out of no where, "how did you do that," he said, getting into one that share was driving.

"You'll be taught how to do that, don't worry," Share said, before driving off to get food.

In the Hall of Hearts it was Grumpy, Good Luck, and Wish Bears turn to serve lunch today. They three looked up from handing out plates of food when the cousins entered the, and watched as they grabbed trays. Good Luck smiled, "So how's the first day going Snowy?"

"Tiring," was all he said as he was served.

"He ended playing touch football with us," Bright Heart explained.

"Well that makes sense," Wish said, "don't be too rough on him today."

Where's Fauna at?"

Swift Heart smirked at Grumpy, "Why? You're not worried about her are you?"

"No! Just wondering is all."

He handed her a bowl of mac and cheese, "She stayed behind to get Loyal Heart and Proud Heart. Fussy pants stormed off after an incident with a cupcake."

He rolled his eyes, "Didn't ask for a whole story. Jeeze."

***

At the moment, Loyal Heart was at Proud Heart's house, sitting on a chair near her room while she cleaned up and changed. Loyal Heart hadn't offered to help as he considered that impolite, and he knew that Proud Heart preferred to be left alone in those circumstances, though if she would allow anyone to help her, it would have been Loyal Heart.

Fauna knocked on Proud Hearts front door, "Hey you two. Lunch time!"

Loyal Heart answered, looking a bit miffed, "If you don't mind he lady is still getting ready, we'll be along when she is finished.

Fauna scowled, "I came out of my way and now all the good food is probably gone." Regaining her true Pegasus form, she kicked the door with a hind leg before flying towards Care-a-Lot.

"We will manage," Loyal Heart said, thankfully the door was mostly undamaged. A minute later, Proud Heart emerged, clean and wearing a different dress, this one pale green instead of yellow like before, "who was that Loyal?" she asked.

"Fauna, just saying that lunch was ready," the dog said. He took ehr hand carefully, "You look nice milady, shall we?"

Proud Heart giggled, as corny and old fashioned as it was, she loved the way Loyal Heart spoke to her, so formal, "Yes of course, let's." Once outside Loyal conjured a cloud car and climbed into the driver's seat, after first opening to door for Proud Heart so she could get in the passenger seat, and they drove to the Hall of Hearts.

Fauna had regained her human form before going inside. She smiled when she saw Grumpy behind the food, "Hey Grumpus! Got anything good?"

He scowled, "I hate when you call me that." Handing her a bowl of mac and cheese he made sure no one else was looking and slipped her a big cookie.

Fauna grinned "Thanks!" Walking to the table Swift Heart was at she tried not to make eye contact with Noble Heart and True Heart.

Loyal Heart and Proud Heart landed nearby and entered the Hall of Hearts, meeting up with Valiant Heart Wolverine and Love-A-Lot Bear as they did so.

"Valiant, are you feeling better?" Loyal Heart asked.

"Yeah, no big deal," Valiant waved it off, "Take Care didn't find anything wrong. Love-a-Lot showed up cause she was concerned."

"I was not!" she said, defiantly. Proud Heart rolled her eye and gave Loyal a look, they could tell those two were close, but they themselves did not want to admit it. So they entered and got served for lunch.

Wish Bear, who was done serving, and Cheer were huddled around a magazine. "Can you believe orange is the new pink this season Wish? I mean who's idea was that." The teal bear shrugged, turning the page, "It was all the rage on the Paris runways this year at fashion week. Valentino even invented a new shade, he calls it shorange." Cheer sighed, "Well he must know what he's talking about. Ooooo! Shoes!"

Proud Heart and Love-a-Lot overheard the girls squealing over the magazine and went to sit with them and share in the discussion of the latest trends. Loyal Heart obligingly went along with Proud Heart, but Valiant just rolled his eyes and decided to sit next to the new member, Snowy Heart, as he wanted to get to know him.

Grumpy too came over to sit at Snowy's table. "So you had to spend a whole morning with the cousins and Playful Heart didn't try to prank. That has to be a new record."

"Must be," Valiant said, "He usually gets me after each game."

"Well, I guess he wanted to be nice to me for one day," Snowy said, eating his food, "So, could you maybe explain some things to me, I don't really know anyone other than Share and maybe Harmony."

"Ask away." Grumpy told him, taking a bite out of his hamburger.

"Well, who are you? Grumpy I think I heard your name was," Snowy said, unsure.

He nodded. "Yup that's me."

"The most pessimistic member of the Care Bear Family!"

"It's rude to eavesdrop Swift Heart!" He called back scowling at her.

"So that's Swift Heart, she's fast from what I saw," Snowy said.

"She calls her self the fastest member of the Care Bear Family, which is probably true," Share said.

"And you, Valiant Heart, what about you?" the fox asked.

"I'm just a tough guy, with a heart of gold," Valiant smirked.

"And meat for brains!" Funshine called from the end of the table, starting up some giggling from those in earshot. Valiant glared at her.

"Anyone else I should be aware of?" Snowy asked.

"Tender Heart, the one who looks like he has a stick up his butt. He's a real stickler for the rules." Grumpy indicated the red-brown bear talking to True Heart and Noble Heart. "He's training to be in charge of sending us out on missions."

"Then there's Bedtime Bear," Share indicated the blue bear who looked like he was half asleep, "He's supposed to be training to be a night watchman, basically he sleeps all day and is up all night, otherwise you probably won't see much of him outside of meeting times. Wish is the teal one who was serving you food, she's over there with Love-A-Lot and Cheer, the two pink bears, and I believe you met Proud Heart and Loyal Heart earlier."

"Thos two are usually joined at the hip, they're in love and they don't deny it, why else would Loyal Heart put up with the torture of listening to them gawking over the latest fashion magazine," Valiant commented, smirking as he finished off his food.

"Why anyone would subject themselves to the mindless ramblings of a girlfriend is beyond me. That's why I prefer my cars to work on." Grumpy agreed.

"You work on cars?" Snowy asked Grumpy.

Share grinned and made air quotes, "He tries to work on cars. Most of the times he ends up cursing at the parts for not fitting together correctly. It's totally amusing to watch."

Valiant smirked, "Cursing so loud we can hear it all the way back in the Forest of Feelings." The wolverine ignored Grumpy's irate glare and continued, "who else, well there's Bright Heart, he's kind of a nerd, but he's really smart, probably knows more about technology than anyone else here."

"Yeah he knows more about making things explode than any one else here. It get's real old reaaaaaaaaal fast." Grumpy lifted his arm to show a missing patch of fur, "This was from me helping him on his self sufficient vacuum cleaner."

"Well it's your own fault for volunteering to help," Share said.

"Umm, I think I'll stay far away from your houses, no offence," Snowy said.

Grumpy shrugged, "Doesn't bother me. I prefer not having visitors. And I did not volunteer...he black mailed me."

"first I've heard of him black mailing you, but I honestly don't care enough to know what happened, there was a big boom, end of story," Valiant said, "excuse me, I'm going I need to use the gym," The Wolverine got up and left, leaving snowy to finish off his lunch, which he had eaten rather slowly.

"So, what is there to do for fun, or should I ask someone else?" the arctic fox cousin inquired.

"See you around Snowy." Grumpy too got up, bussing his tray and heading out the side door. Share smiled apologetically at the fox, "Not exactly the warmest people for your first taste of Care-a-Lot society."

"I'm sure I'll get used to it after a while, and there's bound to be more things to do up here. Once I set up a place for archery I'll be able to amuse myself when I have free time," Snowy said. He got up and bussed his tray as well before leaving, and Share followed him,

"You're good at archery?" she asked.

"Quite good at it," Snowy said, sounding happy about one of his skills for once, "but I need a good place to practice so I'll be looking for one for a while."


	3. A Date on Earth

A Date on Earth

Loyal Heart had expected to be waiting for some time for Proud Heart to get ready for the date he had planned with her, but he hadn't expected to be waiting so long while Proud Heart got dressed. Then again, the cat cousin had a rather tradition sense of fashion, not to mention she was picky even compared to the other fashion obsessed female members of the family, so she had to be sure everything was perfect to her standards which meant even after she was technically dressed, she had a lot of personal adjustments to make absolutely sure everything was perfect.

At the moment, Loyal Heart was sitting in a chair near her bathroom where she was getting dressed. He was too much of a gentleman to offer to go in and help her directly, as that would be invading her privacy. Fortunately the restaurant he had gotten seats reserved at wasn't that busy, especially on a Wednesday night, so they had time.

All this time, Proud Heart was carefully adjusting her pale purple dress to be a perfect fit for this. It was down to her ankles, just barely above the floor but allowing her heeled shoes to be just barely seen. The dress was quite conservative, unlike most modern fashions, and sent up to just below her neck but only had small puffs at her shoulders and no real sleeves; however she was wearing "detached sleeves" from her elbows up to her wrists, leaving the only her upper arms and hand exposed. Topping this off she was wearing a necklace that Loyal Heart had given her several weeks ago, it wasn't too flashy, it was just a thin silver necklace with no real adornments. It was simple, but she loved it as it had come from Loyal Heart and actually went very well with any of her more traditional dresses, which she appreciated greatly, it meant one less decision and rearrangement she had to make for formal occasions and still looked very good.

About 15 minutes later, Proud Heart finally emerged and Loyal Heart stood up. He smiled politely and spoke up, "Ah, my fair Proud Heart," he took her right hand in his own, "you look lovely, milady, as always," he kissed her hand politely and Proud Heart giggled.

"You are such a charmer, Loyal Heart, shall we go then?" Proud Heart asked.

"Yes, let's," Loyal Heart took her arm carefully and led her to the door, which he opened for her. She curtsied politely and exited, letting Loyal Heart shut the door. He quickly darted to the passenger door of the Cloud Car he had summoned prior to entering her house.

Proud Heart smiled and kissed him on the tip of his nose, "Thank you kind sir," she said before getting into the car.

"Ugg, Gageth unto me with a spoon," this voice from nearby was followed immediately by a series of fake gagging noises. Both the Cat and the dog turned to see Valiant Heart Wolverine standing there, pointing his fingers at his open mouth, from which he was making the gagging noises.

"I don't see why you find Loyal Heart having such a gentlemanly sense of class so disgusting," Proud Heart said, glaring at the grey wolverine. Loyal Heart just rolled his eyes and ignored the spectator, getting into the driver's seat and taking off for earth.

Snowy Heart and Champ Bear had been standing nearby, watching the event. Snowy was confused by Valiant's display and was about to ask why he was acting like that when Playful Heart Monkey dropped down, hanging by his tail and threw two pies in the faces of Valiant and Snowy.

"Heehee, gotcha," Playful Heart said, before pulling himself back up into the trees and taking off. Valiant gritted his teeth and did his best to chase off after the monkey, but wasn't able to keep track of him and stopped after running for about a minute, feeling a small spasm in his right arm, which passed quickly.

Snowy wiped the pie from his face and tasted some, "Chocolate cream," he said then turned to Champ and asked, "Why did Valiant act like that with those two?"

"Because those two make such a big deal about being all lovey-dovey," Champ replied, "if they hadn't taken off just then, I woulda joined Valiant."

"Oh, but if you all think that, why didn't Playful Heart hit them with his prank instead of us?"

"You weren't here the last time Playful did that, Snowy Heart," Champ replied, "Playful showed up and hit Loyal Heart with itching powder and Proud Heart with a balloon full of paint. Loyal Heart spent the whole time scratching, but because it was a dress that Proud Heart was wearing for the first time, she went crazy. She used her own claws and tore the frilly parts off her dress so she wouldn't trip and chased Playful all over the Forest of Feelings, she even climbed up trees to get at him. It ended up she was down to her undergarments and actually managed to pin Playful Heart to the ground, if I hadn't pulled her off him I'm afraid she might have seriously hurt him," Champ shook his head, "We managed to calm Proud Heart down after getting Playful to buy her a dress to replace the one he ruined and she refused to leave her house until she was rid of the lime green fur that the paint got on; Loyal Heart actually spent that whole time she was recovering at her house. Regardless, Playful Heart won't dare do something like that again on one of the nights those two have a date."

"Whoa, that's one tempermental cat," Snowy commented, taken aback.

"Well, only on these date nights, now you'd better go clean off that cake before it hardens, I have to help Valiant before he loses his shirt over what Playful just did." Champ turned and took off after Valiant, leaving Snowy Heart to wipe his face off and head home to finish cleaning.

***

Loyal Heart was able to take the car down to earth without any trouble and parked the cloud car outside the chosen restaurant. It was a Thai restaurant as both Loyal Heart and Proud Heart loved Asian food. Loyal Heart led his date inside and got them to their reserved seats. Loyal Heart, of course, pulled out Proud Heart's chair for her and pushed her in before he sat down himself.

The two discussed the various things they might order, especially since they always sampled each other meals, sometimes even feeding each other the food off their own plates. They so rarely got the time to themselves they craved so they both relished these dates greatly. Eventually they decided on their orders, Proud Heart was going to have the pad thai while Loyal Heart ordered the green curry, both with rice and tea, as neither of them liked soda pop all that much.. While they waited for their order they conversed.

"This is nice," Proud Heart said, "thank you for bringing me here, Loyal Heart."

"It was my pleasure milady," Loyal Heart bowed his head slightly before looking back up at her.

"You know," Proud Heart leaned over the table bringing her face close to her date's fate, "I think you would make a much better and more responsible leader than Brave Heart would, why don't you ask Noble Heart if you can be his apprentice?"

Loyal Heart sighed, "I've thought about it, but the truth is, as much as what you say is true, I'm not sure I could handle the responsibilities that come with being a leader, especially not if it makes Brave Heart jealous. But I thank you for your kind words Proud Heart," he leaned forwards and kissed the cat softly.

Proud Heart blushed softly as she sat back, "Well my words are true, I think you should consider it."

"I think you might make a charming leader, milady. You certainly know how to keep Playful Heart in line when you have to, even if he has to make you really mad to do so no one else has even managed to keep him from pulling his jokes at any time."

"Now you are the one being overly kind, I could never handle the stress, it would drive me up the wall before the first day," both Loyal Heart and Proud Heart laughed at the though. A short time later their food arrived and the two of them tucked in, and as usual shared their food with one another, feeding each other with their chopsticks and giggling or chuckling periodically.

The meal mostly passed in silence, save for a few interruptions where Proud Heart excused herself to us the facilities, usually to wash up. By the end of the night, Loyal Heart's food was all gone and Proud Heart took the remainder of her food home in a leftovers box. They left and paid, and Loyal Heart took them both to se a sunset up sitting in their car above the Kingdom of Caring. Proud Heart leaned up against Loyal Heart and sighed, watching the sun go down. Loyal Heart smiled and put his arm around her shoulders. After the sun had gone down, Loyal Heart drove her back home and, one again, opened the doors for her. At the door to her house, he handed her the leftovers, which she often saved for breakfast the next morning, and gave her a goodnight kiss.

"Tonight was simply divine milady, I look forwards to more like it," he said. Before he could leave, Proud Heart grabbed his sleeve.

"You are such a gentleman, but you always leave so soon," Proud Heart said, "Why not stay a while?"

"It would be improper for me to spend the night at a fair lady's house, however," Loyal Heart couldn't help but smile, "it would be impolite of me to refuse such a kind offer. Very well, I shall," he said, letting her pull him inside, Proud Heart smiled and shut the door behind them.


	4. Piercings

Piercing Party

Swift Heart sighed as she lay back in her lawn chair. The sun was out and shining and it was supposed to get nice and warm in the Forest of Feelings.

"The perfect time to get a little sunbathing done." She had just placed her sunglasses on her eyes when she heard the flapping of wings. Such a noise usually heralded the arrival of her favorite little sister.

"Hey Swift Heart, whatchya doin?" Fauna questioned.

"Oh just thinking up plans for an atom bomb."

Fauna rolled her eyes thinking 'And they wonder where I get my sarcasm from.' "Well do that later. I'm going down to Earth for awhile and I want you to come!"

She turned her shade adorned eyes to Fauna, "Why do you spend so much time sneaking off down there anyway? I thought you hated humans."

Her ears flicked back, "Just the ones who killed my mom. Anyways it's more fun down there, so come on!"

Swift Heart sat up, swinging her legs to rest over the edge of the chair as she faced Fauna. "What exactly will we be doing down there?"

A mischievous smirk upturned the corners of Faunas muzzle, "I want to get my ears pierced. Have you seen the shiny rocks you can put in them? They are so cool."

Swift Heart had often thought the same thing. Her ears were her most definable feature so why not make them a little more "sparkly" as Fauna had put it. "Okay I'm in. Do you want to invite any of the others?"

Fauna thought for a moment. "I was thinking about asking them, I just don't want Noble Heart to find out because then I'll get a lecture, and I'm not supposed to go to Earth without him, and blah blah blah."

Laughing at her, Swift Heart went inside to put on some jeans and a t-shirt. When she was done they went to go ask the other cousins if anyone wanted to come along for the ride. Surprisingly, Proud Heart said she wanted to. Normally the cat would never agree to something so spontaneous. Cozy Heart decline, not having ears to pierce but she jokingly told them to come get her when they decided to get tattoos.

Going to Care-A-Lot, and avoiding Tender Heart knowing he'd turn them in, they asked the Care Bears the same question. Wish Bear and Cheer wanted to go. They started to bounce excitedly saying they could get some shopping down too while they were down there. Another surprise came when Snowy also said he wanted to go. "I could use a little change of scenery for awhile."

Swift Heart conjured a cloud mobile for everyone and they piled in. Fauna could have easily flown down herself, but she preferred to wear her human guise whenever possible so as not to draw unwanted attention to herself. She sat in the front seat, chattering to Swift Heart about how she heard that it doesn't really hurt to get your ears pierced even though the stud is shot through the flesh with a gun. That caught Proud Hearts attention.

"They shoot the earring through your ear? I find it hard to believe it doesn't hurt."

Fauna turned to face her, "All my friends say it doesn't hurt." She stuck her tongue out at Proud Heart.

She scowled, "How much time do you spend down here exactly?" Fauna turned back around, "None of your business."

Snowy leaned over to Wish, "I'm not going to be required to get a piercing am I?"

The teal bear shook her head, "No. You are just coming to explore and for emotional support. Unless you want an earring."

"Yeah they are so totally in vogue now with guys." Cheer informed him.

The arctic fox held up his hands, "I think I shall pass."

Soon after, Swift Heart lowered the cloud mobile onto the roof of the parking garage of the mall. It evaporated after the 5 members had departed.

Fauna motioned towards the large building, "Ok follow me to Piercing Pagoda."

Wish and Cheer had to remain a few steps behind with Snowy, who was looking everywhere at once. While he had seen big cities before, he had never been to one so most of the sights were new and surprising.

"Can this building actually hold all these people?" he was starring at the parking lot filled to the brim with cars.

"Oh yea, it's totally massive inside. Come on. You'll get a real trip out of the escalator." Cheer told him.

He quirked his brow, "What's an escalator?"

The girls laughed and pushed him through the doors of the mall. He was greeted with the sight of a multitude of colorful store fronts, varying smells, and a symphony of sounds. Suddenly he felt very small.

"How do people not get lost in here?"

Wish pointed to a large black rectangle with writing and pictures on it, "The mall directory. It's all knowing."

"Hurry up you two, we're loosing Fauna and Swift Heart." They trotted to catch up with Cheer and the other two.

Fauna looked through the variety of studs she could choose from. They were all so pretty she was having a hard time choosing. Plus there were other factors she was mulling over in her head that would be contributing to the final decision.

"Ooo! How about the ruby ones?"

Swift Heart looked at the ones she meant. Shaking her head she replied, "Can't hun. They're in a gold setting."

Fauna cursed before looking to other options.

"Why does the fact they are made of gold matter?" Snowy asked Swift Heart.

"Gold is poison to immortals like Fauna. It dampens their magical energy weakening them."

"That's it! Those are the ones!" Fauna was holding up a set of deep blue sapphires in a silver setting.

"Nice. I always thought blue was the best color." Swift Heart smiled brushing off her shoulder.

Fauna was only half listening however, "Yeah…blue is the best." Shaking her head she handed the earrings to the person behind the counter and hopped into the chair. The poor woman had finally gotten over the shock of all the Care Bears milling around her stand, after 20 minutes of starring open mouthed.

Cleaning Fauna's ears and placing the dots on the lobe, she checked the positioning before picking up the gun. "Okay you'll feel a slight stinging but it should fade quickly. Ready?" The Pegasus nodded.

Cheer and Wish winced as the earring stud shot through Fauna's earlobe. Her grin stayed on her face, "Not bad at all."

A few hours later

Loyal Heart, Grumpy, Brave Heart, and Share were milling around in Care-A-Lot when they saw Cheer, Wish, Swift Heart, Snowy, and Fauna come from the direction of the landing strip. The girls all had the same identical smile on their face.

"Why do you look so happy?" Grumpy demanded. Fauna tucked her hair behind her ears, "Notice anything different Grumpus?"

Something blue twinkled from her ears. "You got your ears pierced!"

"We all did." She responded, indicating the others. Swift Heart had gotten yellow sapphires, Wish Bear small gold stars, Cheer pink hearts, and Proud Heart small pink studs.

Loyal Heart blinked when he noticed the small studs stuck in the bottom of each of Proud Heart's ears, "Proud Heart you got your ears pierced?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes," Proud Heart said, somewhat softly, "Fauna and the others got me to do it. What do you think?" The blue dog smiled and gave Proud Heart a kiss on the cheek, "It's not what I was expecting to see after you got back from earth, but it certainly looks nice on you."

Proud Heart blushed slightly and giggled, "Thanks, Loyal Heart, I admit they do look perrrfect on me, but I don't think I'll do it again it feels a bit irritating and these studs need to stay in or the holes will close up and I'll have to put up with being nagged to do it again. But I'm not getting any more, it's too much trouble."

"Noble Heart and True Heart are going to have a fit!" Brave Heart was smirking even as he said it however, imagining the looks on their faces.

Share pulled Snowy aside, "Did you get anything pierced?"

He shook his head quickly, "No no no. I just went along for the ride."

She laughed and linked her arm through his, "I was just teasing you Snowy."

Swift Heart flicked her ears Grumpy, "Come on Grumpy it's not that bad. It's just a few little glamour touches and expressions of individuality."

His eyes relaxed, "You got more than one?"

The rabbit smirked and linked her hands behind her back. "Just one other. Oh but don't worry, you won't be able to see it. At least not right now." Humming to herself she sauntered away, leaving Grumpy dumbstruck.

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Piercing Party


	5. Symbol Training

Symbol Training

It was early in the morning when Brave Heart and Share Bear went to pick up Snowy Heart Fox from his new house in the Forest of Feelings for his first training with his tummy symbol. They were nearing his house and about to knock on the door when they heard a swooshing noise followed by the thud of something striking an object at high speed coming from his back yard. Curious about the noise, both of them walked around to the back of his house to find Snowy Heart standing and holding a well crafted bow, drawing back the bowstring with an arrow on it he then took aim at a target he had made himself and let the arrow fly, striking the target in the bull's-eye. Looking at the target they saw that there were already several arrows sticking in it, and all of them were in the bull's-eye.

"Now that's some marksmanship," Brave Heart said, "You should be good when you do tummy symbol training!" he pumped his arm enthusiastically.

Snowy turned, finally noticing that he had company, "Oh, hi Brave Heart, hi Share Bear, what's tummy symbol training?"

"It where you learn to use the symbol you have on your tummy to both combat evil and also create objects, like those cloudmobiles we use to get around," Share explained, then she asked, "where did you learn to be such a good archer?"

"The man who raised me taught me how to be an archer, I just practiced it a lot because I felt it was something I could be good at," Snowy unstrung his bow, "I'll be out in a minute, just let me take this inside," the Arctic Fox took his bow inside and a moment later he exited, "OK, lead the way please."

"All right, let's go!" Brave Heart said, turning and marching in the direction of the tummy symbol training grounds. While the lion confidently marched ahead, Share stayed back with Snowy Heart, conversing with him.

"So, how are you enjoying your new home Snowy?" Share asked.

"It's all right, not what I'm used too," Snowy admitted, not sure what else he could say. Share smiled and did took Snowy's hand.

"Com'on Snowy, show some enthusiasm, this is a great place to live and you'll love it even more when you're able to go around helping people on earth with the rest of us," Share skipped forwards slightly before stopping and spinning around, causing her poodle skirt to fan out briefly, to look at Snowy Heart who had stopped moving.

The arctic fox cousin smiled, "I'll do my best," he said.

"Hey now, what's the hold up, we have serious work to do!" Brave Heart had gotten rather far ahead and had looked back to see the two stopping to converse, and thus had shouted back at them.

"Let's go before the drill sergeant gets any madder," Snowy Heart said, causing Share to giggle at the comment as they resumed walking.

***

The tummy symbol training area was an open area with several targets a short distance, much like the ones Snowy used for archery except they were much closer to where the people practicing were standing.

"Here we are, all right Snowy stand here," without waiting for the fox to respond, Brave Heart took Snowy and dragged him over to where he needed to stand, "Now listen to me and watch," Brave Heart stood in line with another target, "Dig down deep and find your heart aim for the target, and Call!" with his shout, Brave Heart's tummy symbol fires a beam of blueish energy full of hearts and stars, which struck the target down range. Seeing that Snowy was uncertain, Share also demonstrated the use of her tummy symbol for the Care Bear Stare.

"Go ahead, Snowy, try it," share said encouragingly. Snowy nodded.

"All right," Snowy said under his breath, "I can hit the bull's-eye from a long range with my bow, this should be no different." The arctic fox closed his eyes and felt down, following what Brave Heart has said, he concentrated and then he fired the call. However, Snowy was completely unprepared for the recoil from using his tummy symbol and ended up being forced to step back a short distance and falling on his back. Snowy's call fizzled out as Share ran to his side and helped him up, struggling to control her laughter.

"Sorry, we forgot to tell you that it kinda throws you off when you first try it," Share couldn't resist giggling again as Snowy blushed, embarrassed at having fallen down, "Don't worry, now you know so you'll be ready for it."

"All right," the arctic fox cousin stepped up to the target area again and once again, fired his call. This time he was able to stay in one place, but his shot went far off the target, missing it completely.

"Keep trying Snowy Heart!" Brave Heart shouted, "You need to be able to hit the target eventually.

After almost an hour practicing and finally managing to hit the target, Share took Snowy's hand, "All right, I think you know enough, come here, I'll show you how to use your tummy symbol top create items."

"All right, and thanks for getting me away from Brave Heart," Snowy said.

Share giggled, "He's over enthusiastic but he means well, now watch," she put her hands in front of her symbol, on her dress visible where it was underneath, "do the same thing you do to call, but instead of taking aim for something think of what you want to make, like this," Share's symbol glowed and a moment later, a small yellow star appeared in her hands, "Go ahead and try."

"All right," Snowy said, "Once again he closed his eyes, focusing on finding the same feeling as before. It took a couple minutes before the fox's symbol began to glow and another minute before he was able to create an object, a small white ball appeared in his hands, about the size of a golf ball.

"That's the best I could do," Snowy said, "sorry."

"No, that's all right," Share reassured him, "It takes time to learn to create bigger and more complex objects, keep going."

It was lunch time when Snowy decided to take a break, going to the Hall of Hearts with Share to get something to eat. On the way to the hall, Snowy asked Share why she liked to spend so much time with him.

Share smiled and said, "I thought you knew, it's because I like you Snowy," she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Snowy's white face turned bright red and he mumbled something about being hungry before speeding up his pace to get to the hall. Share giggled as he ran on ahead of her, "He's so cute when he's embarrassed," before picking up her pace as well, she was still quite hungry as well.


	6. Halloween Dance

Halloween Dance

Halloween Dance

True Heart made sure she had everyone's attention. "Okay gang, since you've all been working so hard Noble Heart and I have decided to reward you by throwing you a Halloween Dance. You will be allowed to wear whatever costume you want. Any questions?"

"What is a Halloween dance?" Snowy asked.

Rather than let the founders reply, Share said, "Don't worry, Snowy, I'll full you in later." Snowy nodded and blushed a bit.

Fauna raised her hand, a blush coming into her cheeks, eyes not meeting True Hearts. "Can I bring someone?"

"I don't see why not," Noble Heart said.

"Who did ya have in mind, Fauna?" Swift Heart asked.

She wilted under the looks of the others, a very rare trait in their outspoken Fauna. "No one you know." she mumbled her cheeks flaming brighter. Swift Heart smirked but left it alone. The family dispersed to plan their costumes, some going in groups to plan larger costumes or sets of costumes that would go together. Once Share had explained the concept to him, Snowy decided that he would go down to earth to find a costume, since he had no idea what he wanted to dress up as. Once he had a moment he went to the side and, with some effort, conjured a cloud car before heading down to find his costume. Fauna left after the meeting, saying she had things to take care of.

Swift Heart was about to head home when she heard Grumpys voice from behind her "It's a boy isn't it?" Swift Heart quirked her newly pierced eyebrow at him. Since she had gone down with the group the first time, Swift Heart had added 4 more piercings to her ear and now to her left eyebrow.

"I'm guessing. Otherwise she wouldn't have clamed up like that." She fake sniffled, "Our little Fauna is growing up so fast." Grumpy scowled, he had always held an over protective brother mentality towards Fauna.

"Why has she never mentioned it before? Is it a human or one of the other pegasis?"

Swift Heart shrugged, "Who knows, I guess we will all find out together. That is if you don't kill them the moment they walk in the door."

"I'm not gonna kill him!" he cleared his throat and changed the subject, "So what are you going as."

Swift Heart smiled, "That's just another surprise you're going to have to wait for. Later Grumpy." she walked away from him, pulling her sunglasses down. Grumpy stood a moment watching her go, "Fauna isn't the only one growing up." Turning he went to go find Good Luck, Brave Heart, and Tender Heart so they could plan their costumes.

The Halloween dance approached rapidly for members of the family as they all planned their individual or group costumes. The day of the dance arrived and once the set up was done, members of the family began to gather in the Hall of Hearts, which had been decorated in a spectacular theme for the occasion. There were a few standard costumes, Cheer Bear as a Cheerleader, Champ dressed up in a football uniform, Bedtime dressed as a pirate and fully awake as it was the evening, which was when the normally got up Friend, Wish, and Share had each come as a princess from their favorite Disney movies, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Tiana respectively. Grumpy, Brave Heart, Tender Heart, and Goodluck had come as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Donatello respectively. They had gotten shells, masks and plastic weapons and were going around striking poses. Lotsa Heart, Treat Heart, and Birthday bear were struggling to walk together as a three headed knight from the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Playful and Funshine had dressed up as the Men in Black armed with fake pistols loaded with silly string. Gentle Heart was dressed as bo peep and Bright Heart was wearing a red uniform, that when asked was revealed to be from Star Trek, and that he was supposed to be the engineer from that series, Scotty. Harmony was dressed up as a hippie and Loyal Heart was dressed as a knight, complete with a plastic longsword while Proud Heart was dressed as a generic princess, using her own sense of style on the dress rather than just picking something from a movie.

Snowy arrived next, wearing a very strange outfit, consisting of a robe that was almost entirely white but had a few blue lines up the center of the back and sides with a horizontal line near the middle crossing through the other lines and a short white cape around his shoulders; he was wearing the pendant he had been given on leaving his tribe outside his clothes for once. When asked what it was he just replied that he had seen it in a store and felt he should have it for some reason, and that the person who had sold it to him said it would be "useful" at some point. Soon after Snowy arrived Fauna came in dressed as Harley Quinn from the Batman arc. Accompanying her was her date dressed as the joker. His face was covered in white makeup and his hair had been dyed green so it was hard to determine what he looked like without his costume. Their arms were linked and they were laughing about something. Valiant Heart arrived shortly thereafter, dressed up in a red two-tailed coat with a black undershirt and pants and with a large wooden sword strapped to his back, he later said he was dressed up as "Dante" from the video game Devil May Cry, and Love-A-Lot who was dressed up as the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite.

"So who's that guy with Fauna?" Valiant asked.

Funshine shrugged, "We don't know they just got here and no one has had a chance to talk with them yet."

Playful Heart peaked over the top of his sunglasses, "Looks like we won't have to wait anymore. They're heading this way."

Fauna and her date came up to the small group. "Hey guys, this is Blue. He's a friend of mine from the Falls."

"A friend huh," Valiant said, The wolverine held out his hand, "Hi, I'm Valiant Heart Wolverine, Blue, nice to meetcha."

Blue shook his hand. "Same. Fauna's told me a lot about everyone." He looked over to her with a smile, which she returned.

Ever the matchmaker, Love-a-Lot could scarcely avoid asking her next question, "So, are you two just friends or are you dating?"

Blue grinned wider, Fauna scowled at Love-a-Lot. "That is an excellent question. What would you say we are Fauna?" She blushed under her face paint. "Let's talk about something else."

Love-a-Lot didn't pursue the question, she had gotten her answer in their actions. Snowy was nearby and had wandered over, no knowing what was going on he asked.

"Fauna, is that you in the weird clown costume, and who's this?"

"Yes that's Fauna, the guy's name's Blue," Valiant said cutting in.

"Are you a shapeshifter too?" Snowy asked.

Blue smirked knowing Fauna must be dieing at having to explain this. "My costume is not weird! At least I'm not in a bathrobe and Blue is a shape shifter too, but only because I gave him the ability, which we didn't know I could so it was a huge accident and real awkward....yeah."

"This isn't a bathrobe," Snowy said, "and how OW!" Valiant had elbowed the fox in the ribs to shut him up.

"What was taht for?" Snowy asked, coughing a bit.

Valiant pulled him aside and said, "Trust me, when you hang out with Love-a-Lot as much as I do, you learn to pick up on things, and besides it's their personal business. Now excuse me, I need something to eat," the grey wolverine departed, heading for the snack table. Snowy shrugged and went to join Share Bear.

The lights suddenly dimmed causing everyone to whisper. Cozy Heart flicked the spotlight on the door as music floated out of a boom box courtesy of Harmony. All eyes looked to the Hall of Hearts door. Swift Heart stood there clad in a tight red dress, purple gloves, and an orange wig that covered one of her eyes. She opened her mouth and started to sing. "You had plenty of money in 1922. You let other women make a fool of you. Why don't you do right, like some other men do?" Hands on her hips she sashayed slowly into the building. "Get out of here, get me some money too. You're sittin down and wonderin what it's all about. If you ain't got no money, they will put you out. why don't you do right, like some other men do?" She stopped in the center of the floor and slowly lowered herself till she was squatting, "Get out of here, get me some money too" She once more straightened and walked to Brave Heart, "Now if you had prepared 20 years ago. You wouldn't be a wanderin now from door to door." She tossled his mane before moving onto Good Luck. Pinching his cheeks she continued "Why don't you do right, like some other men do?" she spun slowly away from him and rubbed up against Grumpy, "Get out of here, get me some money too." She kept her back to him and put one hand on his cheek, "Get out of here, get me some money too." She pulled his head closer to hers. "Why don't you do right, like some other men do?" As her final note faded away she moved away from him and snapped, causing Cozy to flick off the spot light. Everyone other than Harmony Bear and Cozy Heart had been staring at Swift Heart as she had done her song and they were still staring as she finished, all of them speechless for one reason or another.

Fauna started the applause, "Ow owwwwwwww! You go Jessica Rabbit!" Blue joined her as well as a few others. The lights came back on and Swift Heart gave a bow. "Thank you thank you!"

After the applause had finally subsided, Snowy spoke to Share, whom he was standing with, "I thought that routine was familiar, that's from 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' isn't it?"

"You've seen that movie?" Share asked.

Snowy nodded, "I saw that movie when I was younger. We watched it in school one day when we had a movie day instead of normal lessons."

Across the hall, Love-a-Lot grinned when she saw Grumpy, "Aww look at the pouty guy, looks like Swifty's little act got him good."

"Mmhmm," was all Valiant said, having turned back to the food once he had finished clapping.

Now that Swift Hearts performance had ended, the normal dancing music had resumed. Swift Heart had moved over to Fauna and was being introduced to Blue and Good Luck was being punched in the arm by Grumpy after some comment he had made.

The music's pace had prompted Loyal Heart to take Proud Heart hands and begin dancing slowly with her. Share watched for a minute then turned to Snowy and asked, "Would you like to dance?"

"Well umm... sure," Snowy said shyly, taking Share's hand and moving to the dancing area. Despite not having taken any dancing lessons, Snowy was well coordinated and he was able to keep up with Share quite well.

"Come on Harley, let's cut a rug!" Blue tugged Fauna out onto the floor. She giggled and saluted him, "Sure thing Mistah J!" Swift Heart had moved over to the food table to get a drink. "Pretty awesome performance Swift Heart." Grumpy told her. "Thanks Grumpy, glad you liked it." She sipped her punch. "I like your costume, figures you'd be the Turtle with attitude." He rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah well...anyways I came over to see if you wanna dance?" She smirked and placed her hands on her hips, "I don't know if my husband would approve." Grumpy smiled down at her, "Well we just won't tell him" Smiling she followed him out to the floor near Loyal Heart and Proud Heart. Soon enough, the mood had everyone wanting to dance and everyone began asking someone else to dance, even Lotsa Heart, Treat Heart, and Birthday Bear, who had taken off the outer layer of their costume that bound them together. Love-a-Lot even convinced Valiant Heart to dance, despite his protests.

"Finally dragged him away from the buffet table Love-a-Lot? Swift Heart teased.

"Yep!" Love-a-Lot said.

"Hey, I don't like dancing!" Valiant protested.

"Coulda fooled me," Swift Heart shot over at them, before their dancing took the two couples apart.

True Heart and Noble Heart watched their charges dancing from their spot near the food table. "I'd say it's going well, wouldn't you Noble Heart?"

Noble Heart nodded, "Yes it is," he turned to True Heart and asked, "Care to dance my dear?" offering his hand to her. Noble Heart danced with True Heart and smiled at her, taking care of the family was such a full time job that they rarely had a moment together, despite the fact that they were married.

A few hours later, the dance ended and everyone headed for their homes, other than Bedtime who was supposed to stay up at night. Some couples stayed together, others split apart, Loyal Heart in particular felt he should escort his "lady" Proud Heart home. Grumpy watched as Fauna said her goodbyes, saying she was spending the night in The Falls. He didn't much care for that but Swift Hearts foot on his prevented him from objecting.

"You're not her father and she's a smart girl. Let her make her own decisions. Besides, they're going to be chaperoned."

Grumbling he crossed his arms, "It's just weird to me. She seems so young."

"She's 13 Grumpy. Now come on and walk me out."

"You can walk by yourself, you don't need me."

She smirked, "No I don't. However this zipper is kinda tricky..." That got his attention and together they walked out.

Fauna had heard the end of the conversation and winked at Swift Heart, "You're bad." She shook her head, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."


	7. Library Rendezvous

Library Rendezvous

Because she was so shy, there were few places that Gentle Heart Lamb liked to spend her time other than at home; one of those places was the Care-A-Lot library. It was quiet as most of the family rarely spent any time there, and even when they did they were often there and gone quickly allowing Gentle Heart the peace and quiet she loved. Right now she was searching for some graphic novels that Grams Bear had brought back from her last trip to Earth. The elderly bear mostly spent her time in here as well, but for her it was because she was the librarian, a job she was comfortable with doing.

Gentle Heart looked around the side of a bookshelf and saw the stand where the graphic novels were, mixed in with the comics. There were only nine of them and they all had the same large word "BONE" written across the top of them. She moved towards the books carefully, scratching at an itch on her chest as she did so, and reached to grab the one labeled as "volume 1" only to find her hand met another purple hand reaching for the same book. She looked up to see Bright Heart and blushed, pulling back.

"Sorry, you can take it," she said, blushing out of embarrassment. Bright Heart blinked, the nerdy cousin was almost as much of a shut in as Gentle Heart, except his reasons were because he preferred to spend his time drawing up ideas for various machines that he then tried to build, as well as watching a lot of sci-fi and playing video games.

Bright Heart took the book and looked up at the lamb, who hadn't moved from where she was standing, scratching through her white shirt at her chest for some reason, and spoke, "I didn't know you liked these kind of books, Gentle Heart."

"Well, I don't usually," she said, shuffling her feet with her hands behind her back, "but I heard this series was good. I like reading."

"So do I," Bright Heart said, "Want to sit and read this with me?"

"Oh me, well umm," Gentle Heart was caught between her desire to read and her usual tendency to spend most of her time alone, but Bright Heart took her hand and pulled her over to a reading table. Gentle Heart sat down and Bright Heart opened the first book "Out From Boneville" for them to read. At first, it took time for Gentle Heart to finish pages but gradually she began to speed up, her blush faded and she actually began to enjoy herself.

A while later, they had finished reading the book, Bright Heart smirked up at Gentle Heart and said, "Come here often?"

"Well," Gentle Heart blushed again, "I like it here. There are books to read and not many of the family come around so it's usually quiet."

"Ever watched Star Trek?" Bright Heart asked.

Gentle Heart nodded, "I've seen some," she said, "but not much. I watch sitcoms mostly"

"Want to come over to my house today?" Bright Heart asked. Gentle Heart's face suddenly reddened deeply in a blush.

"I've n-never been invited over to someone's house before," it was true, while Gentle Heart was well liked in the Care Bear Family, her shyness meant she had never really made any friends because she found social situations so intimidating, indeed she had to be persuaded to come to the meetings by True Heart or Noble Heart most of the time, and even then she just sat alone and never said anything.

"I promise, it will just be us over there, we can even watch some of the shows I recorded and we can take out these books and read them together," Bright Heart continued. Gentle Heart was taken aback by how quickly Bright Heart had made friends with her and she agreed silently. They grabbed the rest of the "BONE" books, each taking 4 of them, as that was the limit on the graphic novels for their library cards, and headed for Bright Heart's house. Thankfully for Gentle Heart's sake, almost everyone was busy today so they didn't run into anyone, saving Gentle Heart's embarrassment.

Bright Heart's house was a combination of a what amounted to a drafting station and a lab attached to a normal house, making it twice as large as most of the other houses in the Kingdom of Caring, with only Grumpy's workshop house being larger. Bright Heart invited Gentle Heart in. The place was rather messy but not intolerably so; the majority of the mess was thankfully just paper and nothing smelly like food or clothing. Bright Heart rushed around cleaning up the few things that had to be cleaned up, apologizing for the mess. Gentle Heart couldn't help but giggle at how flustered the raccoon was to have a guest over, truthfully she found it endearing.

Once the quick cleaning was done, Bright Heart invited Gentle Heart to sit down on the couch with him while he checked the listings on hi TV for something to watch.

"Mind if we watch some Star Trek: The Next Generation?" Bright Heart asked.

"I don't mind," the lamb replied softly. Smiling, Bright Heart selected a TV channel with the program currently running and switched to it.

As she was not familiar with the program, Gentle Heart didn't speak much during the show, only asking a few things such as who the characters were and what they did. Partway through the episode, she excused herself to use the bathroom so Bright Heart paused the show, as he could do that with his TV.

After waiting for a few minutes he got up and knocked on the bathroom door and asked, "Gentle Heart, are you all right?"

At the knock, Gentle Heart practically squeaked in surprise but she managed to compose herself, "I'm fine, I just need a minute."

"OK, I'll be waiting for you on the couch," Bright Heart turned and went to sit back down.

Gentle Heart sighed in relief, "That was close." A minute later she emerged, scratching at her chest, and went to sit back down with Bright Heart to finish watching the show.

When the show was finished Bright Heart and Gentle Heart went back to reading the BONE books. They got as far as the sixth book before it got dark outside.

"That was fun," Gentle Heart admitted, "but I should get home now, it's late."

"Yeah it was, I don't have guests very often," Bright Heart said. As Gentle Heart was about to leave, Bright Heart spoke up, "Hey, Gentle Heart, tomorrow, want to go somewhere and get something to eat?"

Gentle Heart blushed and turned around, "Go somewhere? You mean a," she shuffled nervously, her hands behind her back, "date?"

"Well, I guess so," Bright Heart said, chuckling a bit, "So would you like to, I can come to your house and pick you up if you want."

Gentle Heart was too nervous to speak, but simply nodded and turned and left. Bright Heart smiled, "I got a date with Gentle Heart," he said before flopping back down on the couch and noticing the rest of the books they had borrower were still there.

"Aw well, I'll bring the last three with me tomorrow, maybe we can read them."


	8. The Great Divide

The Great Divide

The day had started off pretty typically. Tender Heart and Brave Heart were going to have their weekly leadership meeting with Noble Heart and True Heart so they could learn how to deal with their respective annex's fairly. The meeting also served as a time to resolve any conflicts that may have occurred. Little did they know or suspect a huge conflict was going to arise from that particular meeting that would turn the Care Bear Family upside down.

"Okay so this week we will be discussing where the family meeting place should be incase there is an emergency and everyone gets divided. Do either of you have any ideas?" True Heart looked at the boys. Both seemed to be giving the matter a lot of thought.

"How about the Hall of Hearts? I mean we already have all of our big meetings here so we know it can hold everyone and everyone knows how to get here." Tender Hear finally answered.

"Which also makes it the most likely place something would occur. It's too well known, our back up place needs to be somewhere secluded, somewhere safer." Brave Heart countered.

Tender Hearts brow furrowed, "Are you saying Care-A-Lot isn't as safe as the Forest of Feelings?"

Brave Heart grinned cockily, "Care-a-Lot is too open. Everything is visible from an aerial view. The trees occlude us in the Forest of Feelings."

Noble Heart was dumbstruck. He hadn't realized Brave Heart knew the word occlude. While he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, Noble Heart had chosen him as his second because of his likeability among the cousins and his spirit.

"Exactly! All the trees make it harder to find your way. While you cousins may be able to navigate easily, the bears rarely come down so they could get lost and then the point of a rendezvous spot is lost."

"Well maybe Tender Heart, if we didn't have every single meeting up here then the Care Bears would know how to get around in the Forest. Great Wishing Star forbid that you guys should ever have to travel to us instead of the other way around."

Tender Heart felt his temper rising. True Heart tried to head it off, "Okay boys let's take a moment and.." But she was ignored.

"It makes more sense. There are fewer Cousins then Bears so why should we have to drag everyone over to you."

Brave Heart narrowed his eyes, "You're making it sound like the Bears are better then the Cousins Tender Heart."

"Well it isn't my charges that keep getting in trouble for pulling pranks on the rest of the family or for skimping out on training."

"That's because we spend more time as a unit and less as a dictatorship. I don't boss my Cousins around unlike someone."

"Okay Brave Heart, settle down!" Noble Heart gripped his arm. Both he and Tender Heart had risen out of their seats and were leaning over the table towards one another.

"Well none of my Bears are walking around riddled with piercings or spending all their time holed up in their house so obviously I'm doing something right."

"How would you know, none of them ever talk to you about anything. They're too afraid you'll lecture them."

Tender Heart scowled harder, "I lecture because I care Brave Heart. More then you do. I take being a leader seriously. It's not a popularity contest."

"Well if it was you just lost. From now on, consider us not friends anymore." Brave Heart got up and headed out of the building.

"Fine by me!" Tender Heart yelled after him, before making his own exit out of the back door.

True Heart and Noble Heart exchanged a look. "So how are we going to fix this one Noble?"

"We aren't going to do anything. They started this and they are going to fix it. The point of us helping them is so they can straighten out conflicts like this on their own." As he saw her face fall he rubbed her back in comfort.

Champ, Cheer, and Good Luck had been talking outside of Cheer Bears house when they saw Tender Heart go storming by, muttering to himself. He was headed for Grumpy's house.

"Think we should see what has gotten under Tender Hearts skin sports fans?" Champ inquired, pointing his thumb in the direction the red bear had taken.

Good Luck nodded. "I haven't seen him that ticked off since Lotsa Heart accidentally broke his favorite airplane."

"Good Luck, we were 5. But I agree, we should like go see what has him all worked up." Cheer walked out her gate, gripped Champs paw and the three headed after Tender Heart.

Arriving at Grumpy's they saw Tender Heart pacing and telling some story enthusiastically, his arms waving and pointing every where as his voice rose and fell.

Grumpy seemed to be ignoring him for the most part, as he was bent over the engine of the latest car he was fixing up, a green with black racing stripes ford GT350.

Just as the three drew within earshot, Tender Heart reached the apex of his little performance, "And then Brave Heart says he doesn't think the Cousins should drive up to Care-a-Lot anymore and that we should all start coming down to the Forest of Feelings.

Grumpy looked up, "Why would he say that?"

"Oh because he says the Bears think that we are better then the Cousins, and I told him no we're just more organized."

Grumpy shook his head, "I don't know why he got so upset. It's true. It's easier for all of the Cousins to come up here."

"Good! Go tell that stubborn lion that because we're not speaking."

Cheer butt in, "Wait! You and Brave Heart got in a fight?"

Tender Heart repeated the story for the new arrivals, all of which couldn't believe Brave Heart and the other Cousins thought the Bears were stuck up.

"Just because they like to run around in the trees all day doesn't mean we feel the need to." Cheer exclaimed.

"Yeah, and what's wrong with living somewhere open? It makes playing sports easier." Champ agreed.

"Plus our clouds are so much softer and more comfortable up here." Good Luck voiced.

"Maybe that's why Proud Heart is so crabby all of the time. Hard ground." The others laughed in agreement to Grumpy's comment.

Meanwhile, Brave Heart was telling Swift Heart, Loyal Heart, and Proud Heart what had occurred.

Swift Heart shook her head, causing the numerous studs and hoops in her ears to glisten. "Figures the stick up Tender Hearts butt would finally affect his conception of reality."

"You were right; it isn't fair we have to keep schlepping up there. They have cloud mobiles they can drive." Proud Heart responded with her arms crossed.

Loyal Heart nodded, "And it is safe down here."

Brave Heart spread his arms wide, "Exactly! Everything I said was true. But noooooo he has to freak out and call me a bad leader."

Swift Heart tapped her foot, coming to a decision. "I'll be right back." She conjured a cloud mobile.

"Swifty?" Brave Heart asked, a warning underlying his question.

"I just want to ask Tender Heart something." She answered innocently.

"Do you want company?"

She shook her head at Loyal Heart, jumping into her cloud mobile and taking off.

Once in Care-a-Lot she started her search for Tender Heart. She didn't like the digs he had been taking at Brave Heart, and not being the type to let her opinion go unheard, she intended to tell him so.

Cheer spotted Swift Heart walking up the path, "Hey Swift Heart. You looking for someone?"

"Yeah Tender Heart. You seen him?"

Tender Heart stood up, making himself visible. "What do you need Swift Heart?"

She walked up to him, "I heard what happened between you and Brave Heart and…"

"Oh, lemme guess. Brave Heart was too tired from his flight back to the Forest of Feelings that he sent you here to apologize for him? Well tell him I don't accept."

She smiled sweetly, which should have tipped him off to what was coming, "Actually Tender Heart, he wanted me to check and make sure you didn't suffocate after the end of the meeting. What with you being so over crowded up here."

"Let it go Swift Heart. This isn't your business."

"It is my business Tender Heart. Brave Heart is our leader and my friend which makes it most definitely my business, and I don't like some of the implications you were making about him."

Cheer rose to defend Tender Heart, "He wasn't the only one. Brave Heart like straight up said none of us wanted to be friends with Tender Heart because of how he acted."

"It's not like it's anything new. Tender Heart is as stiff as a board, not exactly breaking news."

"At least he isn't dumb as a board." The pink bear responded.

Swift Hearts eyes narrowed, "Your one to talk powder puff, you're one blonde wig away from being Jessica Simpson." She puffed her chest up and stuck out her butt, "Ummm I like didn't like know that like buffalo's had like wings?"

"Hey now that's going a little far there." Champ came to stand by Cheer.

"Is the air thinner up here? Do you guys only hear what you want to hear?"

Tender Heart crossed his arms, "I'm surprised you can hear anything with all those holes in your ears."

Grumpy moved out of his garage, "That's unnecessary Tender Heart. She didn't start this."

"I don't need you to defend me Grumpy!" the rabbit cousin snapped at him.

He scowled at her, "Fine! Go back to the Forest of Feelings then. I was trying to help."

"Oh no I'm not done yet." She got up in Tender Hearts face, causing him to look down at her. "Until you admit that the Cousins and the Forest of Feelings is just as good as your puffy playground up here, we won't be coming back."

Cheer scoffed, "You say it like it's a bad thing. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Her fists came up, "How about I hit you instead!" Grumpy gripped her arms. "I think you should go."

Shrugging out of his grip she walked away.

True Heart and Noble Heart stared at the half empty Hall of Hearts. The Cousins had opted to stay in their forest, getting some take out from Earth.

The Bears didn't seem to be too unnerved by this, many of them were carrying on and laughing as if everything was normal.

"I don't like this Noble Heart."

"We have to let them resolve this on their own."

The next morning Treat Heart had all the cousins gather at her house so she could cook them breakfast. And she didn't skimp. Since she didn't have to run over to Care-a-Lot she had a lot more time to cook. She made pancakes, omelettes, and waffles complete with whipped cream, butter, and 4 different types of syrup to choose from.

"This food is delicious Treat Heart. Thanks for making it for us." Brave Heart had come up for air long enough to deliver the compliment before diving back in.

"My pleasure. It's nice to dine outside for once too. Mornings here are so pretty."

Swift Heart raised her cup of coffee, eyes not leaving the magazine on her lap, "I'll drink to that."

Lotsa Heart had put his egg in between two pancakes and was taking a large bite out of it. Some of the egg went shooting out the back to hit Playful Heart in the face.

The monkey cousin didn't seem to notice, he was pushing his food around on his face with his head propped in one hand.

"Playful Heart are you feeling okay?" Proud Heart inquired. He looked up at her, a smile on his face, "Yea. Why do you ask?"

Picking up one of the salt shakers she turned it upside down, "Well for one thing the salt shaker lids are tightly screwed on, and you aren't jumping around like, well, like a hyperactive monkey, for lack of a better word."

"I'm just a little tired. I didn't sleep so good last night."

They didn't press the subject, even crazy monkey cousins were allowed to have a down moment now and then.

Noble Heart came up to the group, "How are we doing gang?"

"Absolutely great. This is the most relaxed morning we've ever had. And later we're going to have stare practice and then…." Brave Hearts eyes widened. "Crap! The tummy symbol targets are up in Care-a-Lot."

Noble Heart smirked, "Looks like you're going to have to go over there after all."

"Or, one of us can go to get the targets and then come back. Then when the Care Bears need them, they have to come here and get them! So who wants to-"

Playful Heart shot up, "I'll do it! I'll go!" He had a cloud mobile conjured and was in the driver seat before Brave Heart could say yes.

As he loaded the last of the tummy symbol targets in the trunk of the cloud mobile he made sure none of the Care Bears saw him as he snuck over to Funshines house. He hadn't seen her since the day before the fight and since the Cousins had decided to boycott Care-a-Lot, he hadn't seen her since. While Playful was the resident prankster of the family, Funshine was his second in command and usually helped him on many of his tricks.

Hanging from the tree outside her kitchen window, he saw her sitting at her kitchen table, head in one hand and a whoopee cushion dangling from the other.

Grinning he tapped the window, startling Funshine. That is until she saw who it was. Hopping up from the table she went to the front door, reaching it at the same time as Playful Heart.

"Playful Heart!" She jumped on him throwing her arms around his neck. He caught her around her middle squeezing tight.

"Hiya Funshine." Walking into her house he shut the door with his tail and deposited her on the floor.

"I missed you at breakfast this morning. There was no food flying anywhere."

"I know what you mean. I didn't put hot sauce on anyone's food because there was no one there to find it funny."

She pinched his cheek and grinned, "Aww poor you. So do you think this fight is as stupid as I do?"

"Yes. Both of sides are at fault. Why can't they just apologize and move on."

"They're both too stubborn." Playful replied. "Speaking of which, I have to go take the targets down to the Forest of Feelings, but I wanted to pop in and say hi."

"I'll come get the targets tomorrow so I can see you again. Okay?"

He grinned widely, "Okay! And I'll have a little something for you to spice up dinner." He waggled his brows, causing the yellow bear to laugh.

For the next few days, the Cousins and Bears continued to not speak with each other. Any necessary contact between the two was carried out by either Funshine or Playful Heart.

After that first exchange, when Playful Heart gave Funshine itching powder to put on everyone's utensil handles, the two continued to do long distance pranks, comparing notes during their secret meet ups.

The first real problem didn't occur until the fuse box in Care-a-Lot went out. Normally Bright Heart and Grumpy would fix the problem, both being mechanically minded, and one being able to see in the dark, however they refused to work together to fix it.

So Grumpy was left to bungle through it on his own, solving the problem but not before incurring some minor injuries from tools gone awry.

Another of these problems came about when Treat Heart wanted to make cupcakes shaped like clowns heads. However she didn't have the correct mold and would have had to borrow it from Birthday Bear. This being out of the question she tried to make due with a Christmas tree and jack o lantern mold. Needless to say they were the most frightening looking clowns the Cousins had ever seen.

After a week of the two groups not talking, True Heart had absolutely had it. Going to Noble Heart she snatched the book he was reading from his hands, "You listen to me Noble Heart Horse, I have let this silly argument go for a week now and nothing towards the ways of resolving it has emerged yet. My birthday is tomorrow night and if I don't see all members of my family present and accounted for, and happy, you will be seeing what it's like to sleep on the Hall of Hearts floor every night. Got it?"

He held his hands up to defend himself, "Got it." As she walked away, the horse founder tried to figure out how he was going to get them together and speaking.

Deciding to go for a walk to help him think, he headed for the star-o-scope observation area. "If some of them were still on speaking terms then it would make my job so much easier." Getting them together would be easy, they all loved True Heart and would gather without question to celebrate her birthday. It would be the talking bit that he would need help with.

As if in answer to his conundrum he saw Playful Heart leaving Funshines house. Coming upon a plan he called over to him, "Hey Playful Heart, are you busy?"

The next evening Funshine walked with her fellow Care Bear family members to the Kingdom of Caring castle. True Hearts birthday celebration was going to be in the entrance hall. Even though they no longer lived here, this was the first place True Heart and Noble Heart had brought them, meaning it held a special place in all of their hearts.

"It's going to be so weird seeing the Cousins here. We haven't spoken all week." Wish whispered to Cheer.

"That is if they even show."

Funshine scowled, "Of course they will show! It's for True Heart. Jeez Cheer."

The Cousins were already inside when the Bears arrived. Funshine held the door open for everyone to enter, and as soon as the last Bear was inside, she slammed the door shut. Playful Heart popped up and shoved one of Bright Heart's wrenches through the handles to keep them shut.

Champ pounded on the door, "Hey Funshine! What's the big idea?"

"You guys are not leaving this castle until you kiss and make up. Playful and I are so sick of having to prank you separately, it is super unfair."

"So start talking! If you don't fix things, a round of jello bombs will be tossed in through the windows every hour on the hour until the conflict is resolved."

Funshine grinned at him before whispering, "Good bluff."

"Who's bluffing?" he pointed to a large array of buckets full of balloons.

Inside the two sides of the Care Bear Family stood starring at one another. They were waiting to take their cues from their respective leaders since that was where the argument had begun.

After a few moments had passed and no one had made a move, Playful Heart called once more, "I'm reaching for the first bomb!"

"No!" Brave Heart and Tender Heart called at the same time. They exchanged a look.

"So…we heard you guys lost power." Brave Heart tried casually.

Tender Heart nodded, "Yeah but Grumpy fixed it."

"Good good." Again an awkward silence.

Tender Hear cleared his throat. "I could've used your help in one of our training sessions."

"Yeah?" Brave Heart looked surprised.

Nodding Tender Heart continued, "Yeah. We were working on the obstacle course and umm…"

Funshine spoke up from outside, "Tender Heart broke it!"

"I did not!"

Brave Heart laughed, "How do you break an obstacle course?" some of the Cousins and Bears were beginning to chuckle.

"I got mad when I fell off the monkey bars so I kicked the tires, and one was loose. It bounced away and hit the one loose pillar on the tower and well."

That got Brave Heart laughing harder, "You took out a whole obstacle course. Hahahahaha oh man I wish I could have seen that hahahah."

Once more Playful chimed in, "I bet Tender Heart wishes he was there when we beat you in paint ball."

Tender Heart smirked, "Come again."

Brave Heart wiped his streaming eyes, "Yeah. We were doing paint ball and wouldn't you know it I started lecturing them so they mutinied against me. I was so multi colored I looked like the rainbow barfed on me."

Tender Heart too started laughing, "I guess lectures really aren't your thing."

Brave Heart nodded, "And it sounds like I need to teach you about the obstacle course."

They stopped laughing and smiled at each other, "Sorry about what I said. You're a good leader, and you're right. The Care Bears should come down to the Forest of Feelings every now and again."

"And I'm sorry too Tender Heart. Being a good leader is more then being easygoing and likeable."

Around them other members of the family started to reconcile and have conversations. Playful Heart and Funshine peaked inside. "Looks like we did it." He grinned up at Funshine giving her a high five.

Cheer approached Swift Heart, "Sorry about…you know."

"Yeah me too. You're not that dumb." She said with a smirk.

"Aww thanks…hey!" but seeing the good natured smirk on Swift Hearts face she laughed and gave her a playful shove.

As Cheer moved away, Swift Heart saw Grumpy leaning against one of the walls. Walking over to him she saw his hand was still bandaged. 

"Does it hurt?"

He examined his paw, "Yup. The circuit burned me nice and good."

"Sorry about that. And sorry that I snapped at you for trying to defend me."

Next thing she knew a blue rose was under her nose. "Forget it. You were heated up."

Taking the flower she grinned at Grumpy, "How did you know the fight was going to end tonight?"

"I didn't. I brought it to make things okay with you after what happened."

"Well it's beautiful, thank you."

He cleared his throat and looked to the door. True Heart and Noble Heart were coming in.

"Happy Birthday True Heart!" the group called as one, causing True Heart to smile widely.

"Thank you everyone! I take it all is forgiven?"

Brave Heart looped an arm around Tender Hearts shoulders. "Yeah, we worked it out."

Noble Heart laughed, "I knew you could do it!" Rolling her eyes True Heart walked further in to enjoy her party.


	9. December Beach Party

December Beach Party

Even though it was December, the Care Bear Family was in a clothing store, shopping for new bathing suits. As a way to relieve some of the recent stress, it had been decided that they should go to the beach, and since it was December they were going to the beach in Australia, where it was currently summer. The boys had all finished their shopping in about 5 minutes, for them it was just a matter of "they're trunks, they fit, we're done," however they were still there, as the girls preferred to take much longer with their decisions.

"So is Blue coming or what?" Cozy Heart asked Fauna. Since the Halloween dance he had become a somewhat present fixture at Fauna's side.

The shape shifter pulled a bikini off the rack and held it up, "As of yesterday he is." Deciding she didn't like the color she put it back. "How's it going in there Proud Heart?" she called to the dressing room.

"Give me some time," Proud Heart's voice came back. The cat finally stepped out wearing a one piece bathing suit and turned to Loyal Heart, who was standing next to the stall she was using, "How is this?" she asked, turning to give Loyal the full view.

"It looks perfect on you milady," Loyal Heart said.

"Com'on," Love-a-Lot said, from a rack a few row down, "try something more interesting kitty," she held up a one piece with a hole in the middle of its front and back, "like this!" Proud Heart rolled her eyes and stepped back into the dressing stall to decide finally if she wanted this one.

"Proud Heart if you choose a suit that is anymore uptight you're going to get a wedgie." Swift Heart told her from the dressing room next door.

Proud Heart steeped out of the dressing room, back in her normal clothing, "and what would you suggest, Swift Heart?"

She pushed the curtain aside with a flourish. The bunny cousin was clad in a yellow bikini decorated in green stripes. It was as small as it could be without being too revealing and it gave a nice view of her belly button ring, a red star. Turning to her side she popped her hip showing the detailing on the bottoms. "Something like this."

Loyal Heart averted his eyes and Proud Heart scowled, "I will wear what I wish, thank you very much, but perhaps I will wear something less confining. And you should watch those piercings before all those holes in your heard start to affect your brain," Proud Heart grabbed a looser one-piece bathing suit and went to try it on.

Swift Heart rolled her eyes, "You know very well this was the first one I got so chill." She disappeared back in the dressing room to change back to her regular clothes. As she emerged Fauna took her suits in. Swift Heart moved over to Harmony and hip checked her playfully, "How about you mistress of music. Find something ya like?"

"Well," Harmony turned, holding out two suits, one black and red, the other mustard yellow, the black and red one was a two piece while the yellow one was a one piece, but with the sides and back open so that there was only a large piece of fabric holding the top and bottom together on the front.

"Go for the black and red. Yellow is not your color." Swift Heart took the offending garment from her hands. "Actually I don't think it's any ones color." She decided to ask their fashionista, "Hey Cheer do you think this one would look good on anyone?" Cheer looked over but quickly gagged, "Yeah, a hot dog maybe. EEW!" Taking the swim suite she hid it in the 5 dollar bargain bin where it could do no more damage.

Outside the store, the boys who weren't allowed to watch the girl's trying on swimsuits were sitting or standing around trying to kill time. Valiant had gone off to get something to munch on from the food court while he waited.

Champ was counting the windows in the sky light that made up the roof of the mall, "How much longer is this going to taaaaaaaake. I'm missing the game!"

"Oh calm down, there will be other games," Good Luck said, "besides they should be done soon."

Playful Heart was playing with a paddle ball he had gotten from the toy store, "Why do girls insist on trying 8,000 clothes on?"

Funshine had finished and joined them outside, "Just to torture you."

"Yeah, I bet," Brave Heart commented.

Meanwhile inside the store, a fair distance away from the others, Gentle Heart was trying to decide on a bathing suit to try on. Bright Heart was with her, doing his best to help her makeup her mind, despite not truly being educated in such matters. Cheer came over and took a bikini off the racks that was about Gentle Heart's size.

"Try this on, don't be so modest, that's what Proud Heart is supposed to be," she said.

Gentle Heart blushed but took the suit, not having any excuse to not try it on, before stepping into the changing room. She sighed, "Guess I can't hide it anymore," she said quietly to herself as she began to undress so she could try on the suit.

Fauna stepped out of her room for inspection. She had on a light blue top that was tight and stopped below her ribcage and was decorated in purple Hawaiian flowers. Her bottoms were boy short style with the same pattern. Seeing the curtain closed next to her she asked Cheer, "Who's in there?"

"Gentle Heart, but of course the shy girl is taking her time," Cheer explained.

"Hey, go easy on her, I had to really convince her to come on this shopping trip," Bright Heart said, in defense of the lamb.

"Hey, Gentle Heart, are you done yet?" Cheer asked through the door.

"Yes," the lamb's voice was very soft, almost inaudible.

"Well then come out and show us your new swimsuit," Cheer said enthusiastically. Some of the other girls chimed in, encouraging her to come out.

"Do I have to?" Gentle Heart asked.

"For once in your life don't be shy no one's here except for the girls, Loyal Heart, and me," Bright Heart said.

Gentle Heart took a deep breath, "OK, here I come," she said quietly before opening the door and stepping out. Everyone gawked at her, she was wearing the bikini that Cheer had handed her, a one color light purple suit that fit her snugly and wasn't too revealing, but showed off her rather thin figure, deep crimson blush, and F-cup sized breasts.

After a moment of silence, Cheer asked, "Holy smokes, Gentle Heart, are those real?!" astonished as Gentle Heart's bust size was even larger than hers. Unable to speak out of sheer embarrassment, Gentle Heart just nodded, holding her hands behind her back and shuffling nervously with her feet.

Fauna turned to Swift Heart and Cozy Heart, and exchanged a look. They knew poor Gentle Heart must be dieing of embarrassment. "Okay all members of the Care Bear Family with a Y chromosome out." Swift Heart moved to push Loyal Heart out of the dressing room and Cozy Heart pulled on Bright Heart whose eyes were wide.

The boys were roughly shoved outside, and Swift Heart gave them a glare that basically said, "Keep your mouths shut or you're dead," before heading back inside.

With the boys gone, Gentle Heat was feeling a little less uncomfortable, enough that she would be able to speak if anyone asked her anything, which Harmony did.

"Girl, where have you been hiding those?"

"Bandages," Gentle Heart said quietly, motioning towards the long tenser bandage in a coiled pile behind her in the dressing room she had used to bind her chest up until that point, making her seem to be much smaller than she actually was.

"That had to hurt!" Fauna exclaimed stretching the bandage, "Why didn't you just tell us?"

Gentle Heart shuffled uncomfortably, "I was embarrassed," she said, "and I didn't want anyone to be jealous."

Cozy Heart slipped a flipper over her shoulders, "Aww there is nothing to be embarrassed about."

Swift Heart nodded in agreement, "Yeah and not everyone wants big boobs."

"Thank you," Gentle Heart said, her blush fading a bit, "it's not like I could keep wearing those bandages in the water either."

"I'll say, you might had had a wardrobe malfunction," Cheer said, "but as long as we're here, why don't be get you some new clothes and some proper undergarments, unless you want to keep wearing those bandages."

"All right," Gentle Heart said softly. The lamb took a deep breath, "I'm not sure what the others will say, but I guess it's good that I don't have to hide it anymore."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure they keep their mouths shut." Fauna cracked her knuckles.

"Thanks," Gentle Heart said, "I wouldn't want the kind of attention some people might give me because of this."

Love-a-Lot smirked, "Are you sure there is noooooo ones attention you would want?"

"Well," Gentle Heart blushed again, "I guess I wouldn't mind Bright Heart's attention, but I would appreciate some support if I have to go on caring missions."

"Speaking of support, we should get you some better support than those bandages," Cheer said, dragging her towards the section where Gentle Heart could get some appropriate undergarments, which Gentle Heart didn't object to. After buying Gentle Heart some new bras in the appropriate size the girls left the store to meet up with the guys. It didn't escape the boys attention that something was different about Gentle Heart.

Gentle Heart's face was crimson red as she left; wearing a new sweater she had bought which was loose enough to fit better than the t-shirt she had brought with her. Loyal Heart moved to Proud Heart's side and asked her what happened with Gentle Heart, as he had pulled from the store before he knew what was going on. Proud Heart sighed and told the whole story to Loyal Heart as they were leaving.

Bright Heart tried to get close, but was initially barred by the others, until Gentle Heart spoke up, "No it's all right, I'd like to speak to Bright Heart." The raccoon managed to get through and the procession stopped for a moment.

"Gentle Heart, are you all right?" Bright Heart asked.

"I g-guess so," Gentle Heart stammered a bit, still blushing deeply as she was in a public area, "I hope this doesn't change anything," she added.

Bright Heart smiled and kissed her on her cheek, "Of course it doesn't, I'll always be your boyfriend," he said. Gentle Heart smiled and muttered a thank you.

"Holy cow! Did you see Gentle Hearts-OW!!!" Harmony had slammed her foot down on Brave Hearts tail before he could continue.

"Put a cork in it man or I'm going to cork it for you. Get me?" Warning glares were given from the rest of the girls incase anyone else had a comment they wanted to make.

"Thank you," Gentle Heat quietly said to Harmony as they all got ready to head back to the Kingdom of Caring. Gentle Heart rode in the back seat of a car with Bright Heart while Harmony and Cheer drove. Thankfully the other boys were all quiet following the threatening glares they had received from the girls.

A week later, it was off to Australia for the beach trip. Everyone was excited and Gentle Heart was understandably nervous, but Bright Heart and the other girls promised they'd support her if anything happened. Fauna and Blue flew next to the cloud mobiles, occasionally dropping below them to ride the warm currents coming off the ocean. Whenever they hit a particularly strong one, they let loose a whinny of delight.

"They seem to be enjoying themselves, I wonder what it would be like to be able to fly one my own," Wish said, watching them below.

Playful Heart laughed next to her, "If you want I can give you a push and you can see."

Wish bear tightened her seat belt and grabbed onto her seat, "No thanks, I think I'm fine where I am."

A short time later, Noble Heart called back from the lead car, "All right, we're here, prepare to land!"

Fauna and Blue separated to land a short distance away from the beach in a secluded area so they could take on their human forms. Grumpy pushed on the steering wheel of his cloud mobile and began the descent, Birthday and Good Luck following suite on either side of him. A short time later, all of them had landed on the beach and they carefully unloaded their various beach paraphernalia including towels and food some had brought along before letting the cars dissipate.

Swift Heart who had no plans to go in the water, grabbed the volley ball, "So who's ready to get their butts kicked at beach volley ball?"

"You'll be the one who's going to get her but kicked," Champ said. Several of them chose sides and in no time, two teams of four were running to set up the volleyball net in order to play the game.

Gentle Heart hung back with Bright Heart. The mall had been one thing but now she was out in public, wearing the same bikini that Love-a-Lot had given to her a week ago, which she had bought as she had found nothing else that felt comfortable.

"I don't know about this," she said, blushing extremely. Bright Heart put his arm around her shoulder.

"Don't be so nervous," the raccoon said, "you look great in that suit and there's a lot to do for fun here, even if I don't have any of my electronics or books, and I promise I'll keep others from being rude to you."

"All right, thank you," she said.

Cozy had run head long into the water and was now diving happily in the swells. It had been ages since she had swam anywhere other then the Forest of Feelings. Fauna and Blue were squaring off with Grumpy and Swift Heart against Champs team. Swift Heart was bumping the ball up and down while she waited for Fauna to finish explaining the rules to Blue.

Valiant, Brave Heart, and Good Luck Bear were the other ones on Champ's team. Snowy Heart and Share had both headed for the water right away as well. After some convincing, Gentle Heart and Bright Heart headed for the water too, Bright Heart wanting to fulfill his promise to keep guard over Gentle Heart. Birthday had headed for the snack shop, wanting to see what was available for purchase. Some of the others decided to lie down and just sunbathe for the time being.

"Service!" Swift Heart tossed the ball in the air and whacked it over the net.

"Got it!" Valiant said, getting under the ball and hitting it back over the net with both arms. Grumpy set the ball over to Fauna who spiked it over, aiming for Champs face.

Champ barely had time to react, stepping back and bumping the ball back over his head, after which it came down and hit him on his head rather unceremoniously before falling to the ground.

"That's 1 point for us," Grumpy said.

Swift Heart was tossed the ball once more and she served it. After a set bump combo from Champ and Valiant sent it back over the net, Blue went to bump it. However his aim was off and it went out of bounds. "Crap." "Don't worry; you'll get the hang of it." Fauna grinned at him encouragingly. In the water Cozy Heart, Snowy, and Share were having a splash war.

"No fair, you have flippers and webs," Snowy said, after getting essentially dunked by one of Cozy's waves.

"Oh lighten up, it's just for fun," Share said, splashing both of them, "Let's see if we can get those two to join in," she said, pointing to Gentle Heart and Bright Heart, who were swimming a short distance away.

Cozy Heart disappeared underwater only to pop up beside Bright Heart, sending a wave of water at him. "Hey guyssss. How''ssss it going?"

On the shore a yelp was heard as Swift Heart and Grumpy collided, both going for the ball. After his head stopped swimming, Grumpy saw Swift Heart lying on top of him.

She groaned and pushed herself up a little. "Sorry bout that Grumpy."

He mumbled something along the lines of, "It's fine." before she got all the way to her feet.

Back in the water Gentle Heart was startled but laughed a bit as up until then, Bright Heart's head had been dry, "We're fine," the lamb managed.

"Yeah, no one's harassed us so far, so what did you want, Cozy Heart?" Bright Heart asked.

Both Bright Heart and Gentle Heart were splashed by the penguin before she replied, "Sssssplash fight!" before swimming away back to Snowy and Share, prompting Gentle Heart and Bright Heart to pursue them.

Nearby, Birthday Bear and Treat Heart retuned each with an ice cream cone they had bought and sat down to watch the volleyball game. Fauna was about to spike the ball once more when she stepped on something sharp in the sand. As she swore in a way that would make a sailor proud, the ball hit the sand in front of her, causing her team mates to groan.

She looked around at them, "Sorry I'll try to impale my foot at a more appropriate time."

"It worked fine for us," Champ said, "the score's tied, let's say the next point wins regardless so we can have fun in the water before it gets too late."

"Sounds good to me." Grumpy replied, he was sweating profusely, as was Blue and both were ready to hit the waves.

"All right," Champ took the ball, "Service!" he shouted, hitting the ball right at Blue.

He bumped it and it went straight up in the air.

"Ha! Finally!" Fauna set it up for Swift Heart who jumped high into the air and Spiked it over with a "HEEEEEYA!" Valiant dived for it, bumping it back over his head to Good Luck who managed to set it back over the net. It almost hit the sand but Fauna dove for it, bumping it to Grumpy who bumped it to Swift Heart who bumped it back to Grumpy who hit it over. Champ had to reach for the next hit which headed for the far back corner on the other side of the field. Blue scrambled to get it but luckily got it to Fauna before toppling over. Fauna set it up for Grumpy to spike. Champ managed to hit it back, but slipped and fell back on his rear. Brave Heart bumped it and cringed at it headed for the net. Sadly it hit the net and bounced back to their side, so Swift Heart's team won. Whooping Swift Heart was picked up and swung around by Grumpy, who was smiling widely for once.

"Go Team we rocked-" she stopped, eyes meeting Grumpy's, "-that." Realizing how close they were they both blushed and he put her down.

"Come on, let's hit the waves." He said before turning to the other team, "Good game guys."

Proud Heart looked up from under her sunglasses from where she was sunbathing, "Looks like they're going for a swim," she commented to Loyal Heart, who had just stood up from where he had been lying.

"Do you want to go for a swim milady?" the dog asked.

"Well, for a little while at least," she said, standing up, "I could use a good soak for the moment, as long as you promise to dry off very quickly once we're done."

Loyal Heart nodded and took off for the water, with Proud Heart following him closely. Fauna raced Blue into the water as Grumpy headed down with Champ. Swift Heart walked to the waters edge, sped through the surf to spray herself off and zipped back to an unoccupied lawn chair. Slipping her sunglasses on, she leaned back and began sun bathing.

In the water, Gentle Heart stared up at the sky, Bright Heart noticed and swam over to her, "Want to get out?" he asked.

"Well, kind of, but I'm worried because of, well you know," she said a bit sheepishly.

"Relax, we'll go drag some beach chairs near Swift Heart and we'll be fine," he said, heading for the shore. Gentle Heart followed him, shivering slightly as they stepped out of the water and a small breeze blew by. Bright Heart managed to drag two chairs next to Swift Heart and got on one, leaving one in between him and the rabbit for Gentle Heart, which she hesitantly lay down on.

"Relax Gentle, You'll be fine. There are plenty of girls on this beach with bigger yabos then you. And trust me; they are not being so modest about it."

"I see, I still feel better with you and Bright Heart here," Gentle Heart said, closing her eyes and enjoying the sun drying her off. Bright Heart turned to look at Gentle Heart and sighed, lying on his side while drying off.

In the water, Cozy Heart was paddling on her back when she heard someone yell "Cowabunga mates!" Looking over to the surfers she saw a violet platypus wearing green surfer shorts with palm trees on them dropping into a huge swell. He continued to surf the line, laughing as his forelimb dragged along the wave.

"Oh my..." Cozy whispered, feeling her heart accelerate.

Snowy Heart caught notice of the surfer as well, "Another Care Bear cousin on Earth?" he wondered aloud.

Share nodded, "There's sure to be a few down here, and it looks like he's sure enjoying himself here."

Riding the swell to its end he sat on his board and paddled back to his friends. "Croikey that was a goodin 'eh?"

"Yeah Jolly, beaut roid."

One of the guys looked over and saw Cozy heart starring, "Ey blokes, looks loike someone's got a Sheila admoierer." Jolly looked over and grinned at Cozy.

Paddling over he said brightly, "G'day Sheila. Wha brings you an yo mates to Oz?" She smiled at him.

"Vacation. Thisss isss Sssnowy and Sssshare, and I'm Cozy Heart."

"Names Julian Kingston love. But only moi mum calls me that. Mates call me Jolly."

"Looks like Cozy Heat found someone special," Love-a-Lot said, having observed the events from a fair distance away.

"Yeah, sure looks like it, but don't interfere, she seems to be doing just fine on her own," Valiant Heart commented.

Blue had wrapped one arm around Fauna's waist as they stood on the ocean floor. "So how bad of an idea would it be for me to shift into a dolphin?"

Fauna laughed, "I feel your pain, but that would be a bad idea. Don't wanna frighten the locals."

"Yes...that would be bad..." He shifted his eyes from side to side. Laughing Fauna gave him a quick kiss. That put a big grin on his face.

"That wasss sssome real good sssurfing Jolly."

He grinned but before he could respond, one of his friends responded, "Course Sheila. Jolly's the gun when it comes ta surfing."

"The gun?" She asked confused.

"Means OI'm the best."

"Oh. I'd believe it."

"You eva troid it before?"

Cozy eyed the board, eyes dancing. "I sssnow board but I've yet to try sssurfing."

"Go On! It's roit up the same alley."

Jolly slid off his board and explained to Cozy how to paddle out and when to stand. Nodding at him and blushing when he boosted her onto the board, she headed out for the small swells.

Always on the look out for more sports to try, Champ called out to one of Jolly's human friends, "Hey, can you show me how to surf!"

"Count me in too, it looks fun!" Playful Heart said, swimming over to them as quickly as he could. The boys agreed happily and paddled into the shallows to start teaching them.

Swift Heart eyed her friend as she stood up on the board, unsteadily at first but soon she was navigating it as easily as she did her snow board.

"That a girl! Work it out Cozy."

Fauna called to her, "You know the view is better from in here!"

Swift Heart turned her gaze to her, "The view of a volcano is also better from the summit. Doesn't mean I'm going there either."

Champ and Playful easily took to the surfing as well, Playful using his tail as much as he could for balance. Eventually, almost everyone in the water wanted to give it a whirl.

"Blyme Cozy you nailed that."

"Aw thankssss Jolly, and thankssss for letting me ussssse your board."

"No worries, aneh toime. Listen, me mates an OI are havin a barbie in me billabong tanoit. Do you an yo blokes wanna come?"

Cozy grinned, "I'll asssk them." She swam to the shore to ask Noble and True Hearts permission. Noble Heart and True Heart agreed to attend the barbecue with Jolly and his friends and once they had managed to get the word out, everyone was excited to go.

Loyal Heart climbed out of the water and shook himself to quickly dry his fur, before it started to smell. Proud Heart climbed out after him rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's way of drying off. Bright Heart got up from his seat and returned a minute later with two ice cream cones, one for himself the other for Gentle Heart. Valiant Heart tried to surf, but fell off on his first go, muttering something about a painful spasm. Time passed and eventually it was time to join Jolly and his friends.

It was just about sunset and everyone was out of the water except Fauna. She was standing stock still eyes wide as she looked out at the open ocean.

Blue hadn't realized Fauna wasn't behind him until he reached the shore, "Fauna?"

She shook her head ever so slightly, "A Great White just came in to hunt. If I move he'll sense me."

"Then fly out!" Blue's eyes widened and his voice had gotten frantic. Grumpy and Brave Heart stood on either side of him, both looking fearful as well.

"Nope. I wanna wrestle him."

"Over my dead body!" Grumpy told her. That's when the dorsal fin broke the surface.

"Are you crazy, even I'm not willing to go head to head with that thing!" Valiant shouted out to Fauna.

"Get out before it kills you!" Champ shouted.

Fauna grinned at them, "Yeah but none of you are me!" As the shark slid by her she jumped on him, arms circling around his neck. The shark immediately started to thrash about and drug Fauna under, heading back out to deeper water.

Swift Hearts ears flapped down tight over her eyes, "I can't watch."

In the next instant, the Great White leapt from the water with Fauna sitting on his back, "Yeeehaw!" They once more submerged and all was quiet. Blue scanned the waters intensely as Jolly and his mates prepared to go in. There was no need as the dorsal fin once more appeared with Fauna swimming along beside it.

"Thanks again sea brother. It was a blast." She patted its head before swimming ashore and rejoining the others, "Okay we can go now."

Everyone stared at her in a mixture of amazement and astonishment, and for some, anger.

"That was insane," Snowy said. Noble Heart and True Heart looked about ready to burst, and were about to get to her in order to tell her off, but Grumpy got there first.

His eyes blazed as he grabbed her arm, "Are you absolutely out of your mind? What possessed you to ride a shark?" She opened her mouth to respond, "No I don't care if you can shift or talk to animals, that was a stupid idiotic stunt that could have ended you in the hospital or worse. If you ever pull something like that again I will clip your wings and bind you in gold. Do you hear me?"

Fauna yanked her arm free and glared down at Grumpy. "You are not my father, nor my mother. You have no right to tell me what to do. I was just having fun, something I can't seem to do back home. Why do you think I sneak off all the time huh? I hate living there!" Eyes glowing gold she stormed off down the beach.

Blue looked to the others, "I'll calm her down." He ran after her.

"Well, that was a downer," Harmony commented.

"Let's not dwell on it," Share said, "we can't keep Jolly and his friends waiting."

Jolly was still smiling and laughed, "Don't fret. So the Sheila got her knickers in a bunch. We'll get the barbie goin, throw on some yabbeys an prawns, crack a few lemonades and lolly waters an 'ave an ace toime savey?"

Almost everyone perked up after that as the preparations went forwards for the barbecue. Following Jolly to his Billabong, they saw the lagoon had tiki torches on the shore, paper lanterns strung from the trees and a hut that had several surf boards lined up on the outside. Also strung between two sturdy trees was a hammock.

"Make yourselves at home, grub 'ill be up in a jiff." The boys and Jolly headed for the fire pit. One went to the hut and pulled out two large coolers willed with drinks.

"Waters safe too if ya fancy a dip." He took lemonade and cracked the cap before taking a swig. The Care Bear Family dispersed throughout the billabong, some grabbed drinks, some sat down and did their best to socialize with the boys, a few others, such as Gentle Heart, Bright Heart, Snowy Heart, Share, and Valiant, all headed for the water to swim.

Grumpy sat sulking under the gum trees. Noble Heart and True Heart watched him, unsure of what to say that would be a comfort right now. Playful Heart was entertaining everyone by juggling while balancing on his tail and Funshine was helping by tossing him bottles. Champ decided to try surfing on his own, with some spotting from one of Jolly's friends, and he managed to do quite well, having picked up on things fast. The others in the water were once again engaged in a large scale splash fight.

"So luv, where you from exactly? OI was pretty sure OI was tha only bloke aroun these parts lookin as OI do."

Cozy Heart drank from her bottle before responding. "We live in the cloudsss in the Kingdom of Caring."

Jolly laughed, "You joker." Seeing Cozy shake her head with an amused look he asked, "No foolin, you live in the clouds?" She nodded and proceeded to explain her home to him.

Noble Heart and True Heart were sitting nearby watching Cozy Heart and Jolly converse. The two looked at each other and then Noble Heart spoke.

"Think we should ask Jolly if he wants to join the Care Bear Family?"

"Definitely," True Heart said, "look how happy those two are together it would be a shame to split them apart, besides it doesn't look like Jolly's presence is needed here for any specific reason, unless he doesn't want to go."

Proud Hearts shriek filled the air. Looking over to her, startled, the founders saw her fur was standing on end and there was a trail of lemonade dripping down her back. Apparently one of the bottles Playful Heart had been juggling had not been closed all the way. The monkey was backing away from Proud Heart as she advanced on him, "Sorry Proud Heart! I promise it was an accident."

She sneered, "And me killing you is going to be an accident too." The monkey "eeped" and ran with Proud Heart hot on his heels. "Playful Heart you get back here!" He bounded up the nearest tree, which Proud Heart climbed with no problem.

Noble Heart laughed, "Why does it seem she is always the victim of Playful Hearts miscalculations?"

"Whatever the reason, I think he suffers more than she does," True Heart said. Proud Heart was trying to climb after Playful Heart, but the monkey was doing everything possible to deter her, mostly throwing whatever he could grad down at her to deter her. Eventually, Loyal Heart came and managed to convince Proud Heart to back off, she agreed, but gave Playful a death glare as she stepped away. The monkey decided to stay up in the tree a little longer just to be safe.

"Man, that cat is scary when she gets mad," he said, lying down on the branch he had been sitting on.

Jolly sniffed his barbecue, "Foods up mates. Bettah tuckah n 'afore the sports git to it." His friends called teasing insults to him, making him laugh. Swift Heart got her food as well as a plate for Grumpy. Placing it on the ground she sat Indian style a few feet away.

"She'll come around. You just cornered her and she got defensive."

He glared at her, "She said she hated living with us. That's not something you say without meaning it."

She didn't respond, obviously he wasn't cooled off enough yet to talk. Instead she watched the human boys flipping chunks of shrimp in the air and catching them in their mouths, or trying too. Everyone got served, Valiant dug in easily, loving the taste of the unfamiliar food and finding he loved shrimp. Gentle Heart took a larger portion than she normally did, having worked up and appetite with all the swimming done that day; she shared a lot of it with Bright Heart as they were sitting together. Proud Heart took a small portion and eyes Playful carefully as he descended to get food as well. Loyal did his best to keep her calm as they went to sit down on the sand and eat.

Jolly raised his bottle of soda, " 'eres ta new mates an ol' ones, 'avin some fun an sharin quoit a few laughs. Oy!" Oy's were echoed from his friends and a few of the Care Bears

As things calmed down, Noble Heart and True Heart approached Jolly and asked him if he would like to join the Care Bear Family. As others finished eating, and waited a short time for the possible cramps to subside, some headed back to the water.

He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking it over, "Owful noice of ya ta offer. An OI won't to, but wot bout me mates. OI'd miss em somethin fierce."

He jumped feeling an arm around his shoulder, "Croikey you twit. You'll see us aroun. You belong wit them Jolly." The others nodded.

Jolly grinned "All roit then. OI accept!" He was clapped on the back, "Good onya mate!" Cozy Heart was smiling widely.

Those Care Bears who remained nearby all cheered, Valiant even called out, "Welcome to the family Jolly Heart Platypus," several others echoed Valiant's welcome.

A particularly strong wave hit the shore, which a once again surfing Champ took quite easily. As the wave passed, there was a cry of alarm from the water, it had come from Gentle Heart who had submerged up to her neck, blushing fiercely.

"What's wrong Gentle Heart?" Bright Heart said. The lamb said nothing but carefully pointed to her top, which had come off when the wave hit, thankfully it was dark enough now and the water was rough enough that no one could see anything, and no one had really noticed. Bright Heart quickly swam over to the floating piece of clothing and returned it to Gentle Heart, who allowed him to help her put it back on, tightening it to avoid another mishap. She thanked him and gave him a kiss before they swam back to shore.

Swift Heart's ears twitched at the sound of people approaching the billabong. "Guess who's baaaaaaaaack." Fauna and Blue walked into the light. Jolly welcomed them, "G'day loony brain. You 'ungry?" Fauna nodded, "Starving." He handed her a plate.

"Hey, guess what, Jolly is joining the Care Bear Family, isn't that awesome!" Brave Heart shouted.

Fauna smiled at him, "Welcome to the S.S. Insanity."

"Yeah, it's a crazy ride, but trust us, you'll love living up there," Love-a-Lot called out from across the beach.

"Sounds ace. OI can bring moi gear with me roit?" He asked indicating his hut where his belongings were.

"Of course," True Heart said, "just let us know when you're ready."

"Sure thing. OI may stay 'ere anotha week so OI can say G'day to me mates. Then OI'll be ready to make tracks. Plus OI gotta say bye ta me mum."

"Well then, why don't we just all stay till you're ready to go!" Playful suggested. Several others voiced agreement with Playful Heart Monkey.

"All right! Week long vaca in the Land Down Under." Swift Heart cheered.

Blue turned to Fauna, "We should fly to Ayers Rock tomorrow. I hear it's awesome."

"That sounds fun. And maybe I can find some dingos to play with."

"I'd like to go see that opera house in Sydney," Harmony said.

Tenderheart tried to protest, saying they had to get back to their work as Care Bear, but True Heart silenced him, "Oh hush, Tenderheart, loosen up and have some fun for a change."

"Oy Cozy, moi mates an OI wanna know if you'd be in ta go swimmin on tha reef? It's a roit beaut soit." Swift Heart, who was standing behind Jolly a ways raised her hand in the air and nodded it, along with her head up and down, indicating how Cozy should answer.

"I would love too."

The next day, Snowy Heart, Share, Loyal Heart, Proud Heart, and Harmony all headed for Sydney. While Harmony wanted to see the famous opera house the other four declined and instead opted to go on a tour of the city, stopping for meals occasionally. Swift Heart went with Fauna and Blue to see the famous rock and Grumpy, Good Luck, Brave Heart, Lotsa Heart, and Champ went with Jolly and his friends to the reef. They were going to learn how to go wind surfing while Jolly and Cozy were under water. Grumpy and Fauna were still not on speaking terms after their blow up the day before. After some persuading, Bright Heart and Gentle Heart followed, and managed to catch up to those who went to Sydney, going on the same king of sight-seeing tour the others were going on.

True Heart and Noble Heart went to the Australia zoo with the others who were left. They were all going to meet up at Jolly's Billabong the next day, to allow for travel times and such before planning their next activities. Cozy Heart gazed at all the brightly colored fish through her scuba mask. She couldn't get over the variety of fish and invertebrates scuttling around on the reef. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen. She couldn't help but laugh whenever Jolly went swimming beneath her. He swam with his eyes closed, and his bill sweeping back and forth.

When they surfaced she asked, "Why do you swim with your eyes closed?"

He flicked his beak, "OI got these electro receptors in moi bill. They tell me whoit's aroun me so OI don need ta see it."

"Ssssoundsss neat!"

The following day everyone managed to gather back to Jolly's Billabong. After waiting for a minute, Valiant couldn't help but comment.

"You know, we've never actually met Jolly's mother, I wonder what she's like."

Jolly overheard him. "If ya won't mate, we can go see her. She lives jus down tha road a ways at thi conservation centah."

"I wouldn't mind, I'd like to meet the woman who raised you," Valiant said.

"I'd like to meet her too," Snowy said, "I was raised down here on Earth as well."

That caught Jolly's interest, "No foolin mate? That's bonzer!"

Fauna had perked up at the words conservation center, "So are there animals there?"

The platypus nodded, "Yea. Mostly orphans that moi mum raises an releases, but a few injured ones too."

"I definitely want to go then!"

"And wherever she goes I go." Grumpy scoffed and rolled his eyes at what Blue said.

As they headed for the conservation center, Snowy decided to tell Jolly his own story.

"I'm from Canada, I was found lying in the snow when I was just a kit. The people who found me were from a Native-American tribe and they brought me to their elder medicine man. They thought I was some sort of spirit animal but their elder could tell I was more human than animal. The elder taught me a lot of things, how to be a shaman and also how to be an archer. The Care Bear Family found me and took me in a few months ago," he lifted the pentacle pendant he wore around his neck out of his shirt, "the elder, who was the closest thing I had to a father, gave this to me when I left."

"That's some yarn there mate. Lemme give it a go. OI nevah met moi true mum an dad. They were killed boi poachers an moi nest mates were abducted. OI was the last ta hatch an was brought ti the centah. When OI hatched in all moi voilet glory, first thing OI saw was mi mum an OI been with her evah since."

"Sounds nice, I don't know what happened to my parents, they were probably killed by other animals or hunters, I never found out though," Snowy said, tucking his pendant back into his shirt.

Cheer was in the back of the group, and called out, "How much farther is it? I thought you said she was like just down the road."

Jolly laughed, "OI did sheila. But OI didn' say 'ow long the road was." His friends started laughing as well.

"He's got ya there!" Valiant called out from near the front, laughing as well.

After another 30 minutes of walking they arrived at a building with a sign in front that said "Gum Tree Grove Conservation Center."

"This way mates." Jolly led them around the back of the building to a large yard with dozens of enclosures.

One of the workers looked up, "G'day Jolly. 'ere ta see yo mum."

"Yup. Moi new mates wa'ted to meet 'er. She about?"

The worker looked the group over, "Croikey, they're jus loike you. Call me a wallabies nephew but OI nevah thought OI'd see tha day. Yo mums aroun wid the babe 'chidna's jus come in." He nodded and led the group forward. As the arrived at the echidna enclosure, they saw a middle aged women with tanned skin from a life time outdoors and silver hair in a braid, straighten from her crouch.

" 'Ello Julian. Fancy you comin 'ere."

"G'day mum. Got some new mate's you should meet." The woman came over and gave Jolly a quick hug. "This is Margery Kingston. Mi mum."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Snowy Heart Fox," the arctic Fox said.

"I'm Valiant Heart Wolverine," Each member present rattled off their name to the woman, introducing themselves.

"An here OI thought moi Julian was the only unique bugger out there. It's noice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Snowy said, "So you look after animals here?"

"Yup been doin it fo near 30 years now. Moi ol' man sta'ted the centah when OI was a tyke, an after he passed on OI took ova." She picked up one of the baby echidnas. "These lil buggers came in las week."

Fauna held out her hands, "May I hold him?" The baby looked at her with interest. Margery smiled and handed him over.

"Mum, Fauna 'ere wrestled a shark."

"Well that's a load of cods wallop if OI ...." Fauna interrupted, "No he's telling the truth. I have a way with animals, let's just say."

"She does," Snowy said.

"So," Noble Heart stepped forwards, "Ms. Kingston, we were speaking with your son earlier, and we invited him to come and live with us in our home."

She gazed down at Jolly with a smile, "And wha' did you say o boyo?"

"OI wanna take a crack at it."

"Course ya do." She turned back to Noble Heart, "As long as OI can see 'im now an then, OI got no problems with it. After all, 'es been down at tha Billabong for 3 yea's now."

True Heart spoke up, "Of course you can, he can return any time and we could even bring you to see him if you wish."

"Cozy said she's gonna teach me 'ow ta floi a cloud mobile." He told his mom, indicating the purple penguin admiring the echidna puggle.

"Yep, he'll learn everything he needs to up in the Kingdom of Caring," Valiant Heart said.

"Sounds ace. Now let me show you aroun." Margery led them to all the enclosures, showing them the different animals she was raising and nursing. The kangaroos took an interest in Swift Hearts ears and one of the Koalas hissed at Valiant when he got to close. They left around sundown so they could make it back to the billabong before it got dark. 

"You're mother is a nice woman," Snowy said to Jolly, "I guess I should tell you the name my tribe gave me, it's Kona."

"Random of you but thanks oll the same Snowy." He clapped him on the shoulder.

"Yeah well, Kona actually does translate to Snow," the fox said, cracking a smile, "I can't wait till you join us in the Kingdom of Caring."

"Am OI gonna git one o' those nifty symbols you blokes 'ave?" Swift Heart clasped her hands in front of her and put a serious look on her face.

"Yes it's part of our premium package. You will also be receiving living accommodations and full access to the 24 hour buffet. Tender Heart will instruct you in the secret hand shake so you may enter and leave whenever you like and as a signing bonus you will also receive a lifetime supply of vegemite."

Jolly laughed outright, "Croikey yor a loon ya yankee roo."

"You have to be a little crazy to live with us," Playful Heart said, cart wheeling past, "just don't annoy Proud Heart or she'll use you as a scratching post."

Fauna put her arms behind her head and said nonchalantly, "Ah Jolly can handle that. He'll just jab her with his poison spur."

The platypus blushed a deep red and looked down. Fauna looked at him, "Oh sorry, I didn't know you didn't want them to know!"

Blue formed a circle with his fore finger and thumb, "Nice Fauna. Real smooth."

"Poisonous Spur?" Snowy asked, confused, "I just have really well insulated fur, helps out in the cold."

"Is that why you don't wear a winter coat when you head down to winter climates?" Share asked. Snowy nodded.

Jolly lifted his hind foot. Protruding off the back was a large spur. "OI nevah use it but mi mum says we 'ave um for defense an warding off otha males."

Cozy smiled at him, "I think that'sss cool Jolly. Don't ssssweat it." He beamed brightly at her, once more his cheerful self.

"We all have our talents," Valiant said, "Just ask the monkey," he pointed to Playful who had gone on ahead and was hanging from a tree branch by his tail.

Swift Heart sped by and pushed him, causing him to swing like a pendulum. Stopping she inspected her nails cockily, "Some more useful then others."

"We'll see who's more useful!" Playful heart said, jumping down and chasing after the rabbit.

She ran backwards, "Give it up Playful. You know you can't catch me."

"See what Fauna meant by crazy?" Valiant said, pointing to the chase going on.

"More loike entertainin if you ask me!" Jolly responded.

Cozy turned to Snowy, "Hey Sssnowy, why don't you tell him about when we firssst met you. Sssee if he thinksss that'sss entertaining."

"Oh yeah, well. when I joined the family, everyone started arguing over what my name should be, what were some of the names?" Snowy said thinking

"Fantastical Foxy Heart!" Playful said, jumping past.

"Shaman Heart."

"Yeah, they all though up weird names for me, but I just felt like being called Snowy Heart."

Jolly laughed at that. By this time they were once more at his home. The others who had stayed behind greeted them and asked how it was.

"It went great, Jolly's mom takes cares of a lot of animals," Valiant Heart said.

"Did you try and wrestle them or were you happy enough just looking at them like a normal person." Grumpy asked him.

Before anything serious could start, True Heart stepped in, "Hey, Grumpy, I know you're still mad, Noble Heart and I are too but she's fine as she is," she turned to Fauna, "And I think you should at least apologize to Grumpy, I won't ask you to not do anything like that again, because I know you too well, but I don't think you two should keep bickering like this."

The two guilty parties exchanged a look before Fauna pointed to a dark part of the billabong. "Private?"

"Yup." Grumpy agreed and they walked out of eye sight of the others.

"Well, at least they're settling it in private," Noble Heart said, he turned to Jolly, "So about how long do you think you'll need to pack up your belongings?"

"Not long. Jus got a few sets o clothes and moi boards." Jolly responded. "We can probably leave tomorrow aftah noon."

"That's good," Noble Heart said.

"Let's forget about the Grumpster and Fauna for the moment and have fun, we should make this a going away party for Jolly dont'cha think?" Playful Heart said excitedly.

"Roit O mates! Let's get a bon foire goin an party!" One of Jolly's friends stated. They went to gather fire wood as Jolly went into his hut to get a stereo and marshmallows.

"All right, Beach Party!" Brave Heart shouted, most of the family cheered as things got going.

When the song "Jump On It" came on, Jolly and his human friends performed a whole routine they had. Around then Fauna and Grumpy had rejoined the group. The boys also took turns telling embarrassing stories they had of Jolly. Several people saw the two return, but decided not to say anything, just in case it caused something to start between them and ruin the celebration. Food and stories, were shared giving each side insight to what life for the other was like.

By the next afternoon, Jolly had loaded all his belongings into a cloud mobile Cozy Heart would be driving back. He stood with his mom and friends giving them all a final goodbye and promising to come back soon. The Care Bear Family waited patiently for the farewells to end. When Jolly finally climbed into the cloud mobile, they took off and headed home. He watched over the side of the cloud mobile until his home was an indistinguishable part of the Australian outback. Cozy gripped his paw in support.


End file.
